Reading Ceramic Disk Capacitor Values

Ceramic capacitors encoding consists 1 3 digits.

Reading ceramic disk capacitor values. Hence the value of the capacitor above is 47000 pf 5. Read the tolerance code on ceramic capacitors. If you are new to capacitor codes then the best way to start is with a chart because that way you can see the arrangement of the code. A ceramic disc capacitor does not have a polarity and connects in any direction on the printed circuit board.

Ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. For electrolytic capacitors simply capacitance values are written on them. Reading values printed on electrolytic capacitors is easy digits on ceramic capacitors need to know some theory. If the capacitor code consist only 1 or 2 digits it is simply their capacitance.

Like resistors has some coding which needs to decipher printed digits on ceramic capacitors also needs deciphering. Encoding for ceramic capacitors. An american company in the midst of the apollo program launched in 1961 pioneered the stacking of multiple discs to create a monolithic block. When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads.

This letter represents the tolerance of the capacitor meaning how close the actual value of the capacitor can be expected to be. The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier. 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.