Reading A Ceramic Capacitor

If there s enough room on the capacitor most manufacturers of electronics components print the capacitance directly on the capacitor along with other information such as the working voltage and perhaps the tolerance.

Reading a ceramic capacitor. The video explores the method to determine the values of a ceramic capacitor with an example. Read pf as picofarad. Electrolytic ceramic and polyester we ll start with electrolytics as they are the most straightforward ones to read polyester and ceramic share the same labeling system but with some small differences. Often the value may be given in picofarads.

However small capacitors don t have enough room for all that. To make it a bit more difficult not all the capacitors share the same labeling system so we have to make a difference between the main 3 capacitor types. Ceramic capacitors which are usually tiny pancakes with two pins typically list the tolerance value as one letter immediately after the three digit capacitance value. Read the tolerance code on ceramic capacitors.

A variety of schemes may be used. 1 picofarad is 1 times 10 to the 12 power farad. In this video i have discussed how to read and understand the ceramic capacitor value from the capacitor code with some capacitor code examples like 22 pf. The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier.

Reading values printed on electrolytic capacitors is easy digits on ceramic capacitors need to know some theory. For example 47 uf indicates 47 microfarads. Read the value directly on larger bodied capacitors. A ceramic capacitor is a fixed value capacitor where the ceramic material acts as the dielectric it is constructed of two or more alternating layers of ceramic and a metal layer acting as the electrodes the composition of the ceramic material defines the electrical behavior and therefore applications.

When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the. This letter represents the tolerance of the capacitor meaning how close the actual value of the capacitor can be expected to be. Read the capacitance of smaller bodied capacitors as two or. Sometimes figures such as 10n will be seen and this indicates a 10nf capacitor.

Like resistors has some coding which needs to decipher printed digits on ceramic capacitors also needs deciphering. Many capacitor manufacturers use a shorthand notation to indicate capacitance on small caps. Ceramic capacitors are generally smaller than types like electrolytic capacitors and therefore the markings need to be more concise. Click here for resistor colour code and smd resistor code ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them.