Capacitors and Its Applications

Capacitor:
The capacitor is a component which has the ability or “capacity” to store

energy in the form of an electrical charge producing a potential difference
(Static Voltage) across its plates, much like a small rechargeable battery.
Explanation:
In its basic form, a capacitor consists of two or more parallel conductive
(metal) plates which are not connected or touching each other, but is
electrically separated either by air or by some form of a good insulating
material such as waxed paper, mica, ceramic, plastic or some form of a liquid
gel as used in electrolytic capacitors. The insulating layer between capacitors
plates is commonly called the Dielectric.
A Typical Capacitor
Due to this insulating layer, DC current cannot flow through the capacitor as it
blocks it allowing instead a voltage to be present across the plates in the form
of an electrical charge.
Working:
When used in a direct current or DC circuit, a capacitor charges up to its
supply voltage but blocks the flow of current through it because the dielectric
of a capacitor is non-conductive and basically an insulator. However, when a
capacitor is connected to an alternating current or AC circuit, the flow of the
current appears to pass straight through the capacitor with little or no
resistance.
There are two types of electrical charge, a positive charge in the form of
Protons and a negative charge in the form of Electrons. When a DC voltage is
placed across a capacitor, the positive (+ve) charge quickly accumulates on
one plate while a corresponding and opposite negative (-ve) charge
accumulates on the other plate. For every particle of +ve charge that arrives at
one plate a charge of the same sign will depart from the -ve plate.
Then the plates remain charge neutral and a potential difference due to this
charge is established between the two plates. Once the capacitor reaches its
steady state condition an electrical current is unable to flow through the
capacitor itself and around the circuit due to the insulating properties of the
dielectric used to separate the plates.
The strength or rate of this charging current is at its maximum value when the
plates are fully discharged (initial condition) and slowly reduces in value to
zero as the plates charge up to a potential difference across the capacitors
plates equal to the source voltage.
The amount of potential difference present across the capacitor depends upon
how much charge was deposited onto the plates by the work being done by
the source voltage and also by how much capacitance the capacitor has and
this is illustrated below.
The parallel plate capacitor is the simplest form of capacitor. It can be

constructed using two metal or metallised foil plates at a distance parallel to
each other, with its capacitance value in Farads, being fixed by the surface
area of the conductive plates and the distance of separation between them.
Altering any two of these values alters the the value of its capacitance and this
forms the basis of operation of the variable capacitors.
Also, because capacitors store the energy of the electrons in the form of an
electrical charge on the plates the larger the plates and/or smaller their
separation the greater will be the charge that the capacitor holds for any given
voltage across its plates. In other words, larger plates, smaller distance, more
capacitance.
By applying a voltage to a capacitor and measuring the charge on the plates,
the ratio of the charge Q to the voltage V will give the capacitance value of the
capacitor and is therefore given as: C = Q/V this equation can also be re-
arranged to give the familiar formula for the quantity of charge on the plates
as: Q = C x V
Although we have said that the charge is stored on the plates of a capacitor, it
is more exact to say that the energy within the charge is stored in an
“electrostatic field” between the two plates. When an electric current flows into
the capacitor, it charges up, so the electrostatic field becomes much stronger
as it stores more energy between the plates.
Likewise, as the current flowing out of the capacitor, discharging it, the
potential difference between the two plates decreases and the electrostatic
field decreases as the energy moves out of the plates.
Capcitance:
The property of a capacitor to store charge on its plates in the form of an
electrostatic field is called the Capacitance of the capacitor. Not only that, but
capacitance is also the property of a capacitor which resists the change of
voltage across it.
The Capacitance of a Capacitor:

Capacitance is the electrical property of a capacitor and is the measure of a
capacitors ability to store an electrical charge onto its two plates with the unit
of capacitance being the Farad (abbreviated to F) named after the British
physicist Michael Faraday.
Capacitance is defined as being that a capacitor has the capacitance of One
Farad when a charge of One Coulomb is stored on the plates by a voltage
of One volt. Note that capacitance, C is always positive in value and has no
negative units. However, the Farad is a very large unit of measurement to use
on its own so sub-multiples of the Farad is generally used such as micro-
farads, nano-farads and pico-farads, for example.
Standard Units of Capacitance

 Microfarad (μF) 1μF = 10-6 F
 Nanofarad (nF) 1nF = 10-9 F
 Picofarad (pF) 1pF = 10-12 F

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Capacitors and Its Applications

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Capacitor:

The capacitor is a component which has the ability or “capacity” to store

The parallel plate capacitor is the simplest form of capacitor. It can be

The Capacitance of a Capacitor:

Standard Units of Capacitance

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