TECH 101 ELECTRIC CIRCUIT

Chapter 12
Capacitance, Part II

1 TECH 101 Electric Circuits

 Objectives
• Charging a Capacitor.
• Capacitors in DC Circuits.
• Universal Exponential Curves.
• Time Constant.
• Energy Stored by a Capacitor.
• Troubleshooting

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 Example
• How much charge is stored by a 4700 pF capacitor connected
across a 12 V battery?
• A. 392 pC
• B. 56.4 nC
• C. 2.55 GC
• D. 56.4 pC

Ans.
B

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 RC Circuit
• At time t = 0, the switch S is closed. The capacitor initially is
uncharged, q(t = 0) = 0 . In particular for t < 0 , there is no
potential difference across the capacitor.

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 When the switch is closed, charges immediately
start flowing onto the plates of the capacitor. As
the charge on the capacitor's plates increases,
this transient current decreases; until finally,
the current ceases to flow and the capacitor is
fully charged. In the diagram shown above, the
right plate of the capacitor would be positively
charged and its left plate negatively charged
since the plates are arbitrarily assigned as + and
- according to their proximity to the nearest
battery terminal.

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 Charging a Capacitor
• Lowercase letter symbols represent instantaneous values
dependent on time.
• Uppercase letter symbols represent steady-state values not
dependent on time.
• The sum of the potential difference and the IR drop must equal
applied voltage; the initial current must make the IR drop equal
to applied voltage:
Vs  vC  iR
Vs
I0 
R
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 Key Terms
• Instantaneous values: are the value of a quantity
at a particular instant

• Steady-state value: are the value of a quantity

after transient conditions in a circuit have passed

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 • After a period equivalent
to 4 time constants, (4T)
the capacitor in this RC
charging circuit is virtually
fully charged and the
voltage across the
capacitor is now approx
98% of its maximum
value, 0.98Vs. The time
period taken for the
capacitor to reach this 4T
point is known as the
Transient Period. After a
time of 5T the capacitor is
now fully charged and the
voltage across the
capacitor, (VC) is equal to
the supply voltage, (Vs).
As the capacitor is fully
charged no more current
flows in the circuit. The
time period after this 5T
point is known as the
Steady State Period
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 RC Discharging Circuit
•In a RC Discharging Circuit, the time
constant (T) is now given as the time
taken for the capacitor to discharge
down to within 37% of its fully
discharged value which will be zero
volts, and in our curve this is 0.37Vc.
As with the previous charging circuit
the voltage across the Capacitor, C is
equal to 0.5Vc at 0.7T with the
steady state fully discharged value
being finally reached at 5T.

• Then just like the RC Charging

circuit, we can say that in a RC
Discharging Circuit the time required
for a capacitor to discharge itself
down to one time constant is given
as:

where, R is in Ω's and C in Farads.

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Example
After closing the switch in the circuit shown below, what is
the steady-state value of the capacitor's voltage if the
source voltage is 12 V, R=470 kΩ, and C=1 µF?

A. 8 V
B. 12 V
C. 6 V
D. 0 V
Ans. Note: In the steady state, the capacitor acts like an open
B circuit. Therefore no current can flow, which means by
Ohm's law that there will be no voltage drop across the
resistor. So how much of the source voltage will appear
across the capacitor?

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 Example
After the switch is closed in the circuit shown below, assuming that
the capacitor is initially fully discharged, which one of the following
statements is true?
A. The resistor's voltage drop starts out at zero and then increases.
B. The resistor's voltage drop starts out at its highest value and then
decreases.
Ans.
B

Note:
Since the capacitor initially acts like a short, the entire source voltage
will initially appear across the resistor.

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 Charging a Capacitor
 Charging a capacitor by connecting it directly across a voltage
source creates a short pulse of high current.

 To avoid damage, we
charge capacitors
through a resistance
that limits the initial
current surge. Charging a capacitor through a
current-limiting resistor

12 TECH 101 Electric Circuits

 Since the capacitor is in SERIES with the resistor the current will
decrease as the potential difference between it and the battery
approaches zero. It is the potential difference which drives the
value for the current.
Note: This is while the capacitor is CHARGING.

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 Capacitor Application: A Camera Flash
A simple, everyday use of capacitors is in the flash unit for
a camera. You need a large charge in a very short time to
light up the camera's flash bulb. The camera's battery
cannot provide such a large charge in such a short time.
So the charge from the battery is gradually stored in a
capacitor, and when the capacitor is fully charged, the
camera lets you know that it's ready to take a flash
picture.

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 Capacitor Ratings
Commercially available capacitors have several important
specifications:
1. nominal value and tolerance
2. temperature coefficient
3. DC working voltage
4. leakage resistance

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 Nominal Value & Tolerance
Capacitors are available in a wide range of nominal values, from 1
picofarad to several farads.
A specific capacitor's actual value is subject to the manufacturer’s
tolerance specification. Typical capacitor tolerances range from ± 5%
to ± 20%.
The best way to figure out which capacitor characteristics the label
means is to first figure out what type of family the capacitor belongs
to whether it is ceramic, film, plastic or electrolytic and from that it
may be easier to identify the particular capacitor characteristics.

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 The capacitance value is marked onto the body
of the capacitor as numbers, letters or coloured
bands.

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 Example:
• What is the maximum value in the tolerance range of a 4.7 µF
capacitor with a 10% tolerance?
a. 4.23 µF
b. 5.64 µF
c. 5.17 µF
d. 5.12 µF

Ans.
c
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 Example
What is the minimum value in the tolerance range of a 2200 pF
capacitor with a 5% tolerance?

a. 2090 PF
b. 2310 PF
c. 1980 PF

Ans.
a

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 Example
• What is the maximum value in the tolerance range of a 3.3 µF
capacitor with a 20% tolerance?
• A. 3.96 µF
• B. 3.63 µF
• C. 3.47 µF µ
• D. 2.63 µF
• Ans.
•A

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 DC Working Voltage
• The DC working voltage (also called the breakdown
voltage) is the maximum voltage at which a capacitor is
designed to operate continuously.
• Usually, the higher the capacitance value, the lower the DC
working voltage.
• Typical values of DC working voltage are a few volts for
very large capacitors to several thousand volts for small
capacitors.
• Common working DC voltages are 10V, 16V, 25V, 35V,
50V, 63V, 100V, 160V, 250V, 400V and 1000V and are
printed onto the body of the capacitor.

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 Temperature Coefficient
Ideally, a capacitor's capacitance would be the same at all
temperatures. But in reality, capacitance changes as the capacitor
gets warmer or cooler. In many cases, change in capacitance is
ignored, but if you need a very precise capacitance value, or if
you're dealing with very large temperature swings, you may not
be able to ignore it.
A capacitor's temperature coefficient tells how the capacitance
changes with temperature.
A positive temperature coefficient means that as the capacitor's
temperature increases, its capacitance also increases. (And vice versa--as
the capacitor's temperature decreases, its capacitance also decreases.)
A negative temperature coefficient means that as the capacitor's
temperature increases, its capacitance decreases. (And vice versa--as the
capacitor's temperature decreases, its capacitance increases.)

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 In addition to telling which way the capacitance
changes (increase or decrease), the temperature
coefficient also quantifies the amount of change.
Usually it does this by saying how many parts per
million (ppm) the capacitance changes for each °C
change in the temperature.
For example “P100” is +100 ppm/°C or “N200”,
which is -200 ppm/°C etc.

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 Leakage Resistance

• An ideal capacitor would have infinite resistance, with

absolutely no current flowing between the plates.
• In reality, a capacitor's resistance is finite, resulting in a
small leakage current between the plates.
• Typical values of leakage resistance are 1 MΩ to
100,000 MΩ or more. This is large enough that, from a
practical standpoint, we can often pretend that the
resistance is infinite.

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 Polarization
Electrolytic capacitors are polarized types, that is the voltage
connected to the capacitor terminals must have the correct
polarity, i.e. positive to positive and negative to negative.

The majority of electrolytic capacitors have their negative, -

ve terminal clearly marked with either a black stripe, band,
arrows or chevrons down one side of their body as shown,
to prevent any incorrect connection to the DC supply.

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 Example
In the circuit shown below, what is the value of I if the capacitor
is fully discharged?

a. 3.3 µA
b. 5 µA
c. 10 µA
d. 20 µA

Ans.
b

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 Example
• Which type of capacitor is polarized, meaning that when
you insert it in a circuit you must be careful not to insert it
backwards?
• A. Plastic-film
• B. Ceramic
• C. Electrolytic
• D. Mica

Ans.
C

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 Capacitors in DC Circuits
VS
The same shape curves are seen if a
square wave is used for the source.
What is the shape of the VC

current curve?
R

C VR
VS

The current has the same

shape as VR.
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 Universal Exponential Curves

Specific values for 100%

95%
98%
99%

current and voltage can 80%

86%

Rising exponential
be read from a

Percent of final value

63%
60%
universal curve. For an
RC circuit, the time 40%
37%

constant is Falling exponential

20%
14%

τ  RC
5%
2% 1%
0
0 1t 2t 3t 4t 5t
Number of time constants

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The time constant is the time that it takes for the capacitor to
reach 63% of the EMF value during charging.
RC Charging Circuit Curves

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 RC Time Constant, Tau

The time constant of a RC circuit is the time it would

take the potential difference across the capacitor to rise
to the same value as the applied voltage if the potential
difference increased at a constant rate equal to its initial
rate of change.
The letter symbol for time constant is the Greek letter t.

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 Time Constant

τ = RC
where t is the time constant of the CR circuit in
seconds, C is the capacitance in farads, and R is the
resistance in ohms.
 The time constant of a RC circuit is directly proportional
to the capacitance.
 Applied voltage has no effect on the time constant.

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 Graphical Solution for Capacitor Voltage

• Because of the fixed relationship between the

time constant and the charging time for a RC
circuit, we can use an exponential curve to find
the potential differences at any instant in any RC
circuit.

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 Universal Exponential Curves
• The universal curves can be applied to general formulas for
the voltage (or current) curves for RC circuits. The general
voltage formula is

v =VF + (Vi - VF)e-t/RC

VF = final value of voltage
Vi = initial value of voltage
v = instantaneous value of voltage

• The final capacitor voltage is greater than the initial voltage

when the capacitor is charging, or less than the initial voltage
when it is discharging.

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 Solving for Time
Decreasing Exponential Increasing Exponential

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41 Dr. Faris Al-Salem, Humber College TECH 101 Electric Circuits
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