Capacitors

What Is Capacitance?
Capacitance is…

 the ability of a system to store an electric charge

 theratio of the change in electric charge of a
system to the corresponding change in its electric
potential.
 measured in farads (F), units named for English
physicist Michael Faraday (1791–1867). A farad is a
large quantity of capacitance.
Design Of A Capacitor
Design Of A Capacitor
 A capacitor is created out of two metal plates and an
insulating material called a dielectric. The metal plates
are placed very close to each other, in parallel, but the
dielectric sits between them to make sure they don't
touch.
Design Of A Capacitor…
The Dielectric
 A dielectric is an electrical insulator that can be
polarized by an applied electric field. The Dielectric is
used when the material is placed in an electric field,
electric charges do not flow through the material
Dielectrics…

 Some of the examples of solid dielectric materials are

ceramics, paper, mica, glass etc.
 Liquid dielectric materials are distilled water,
transformer oil etc.
 Gas dielectrics are nitrogen, dry air, helium, oxides of
various metals etc. Perfect vacuum is also a dielectric.

The following slide has some examples of various

dielectric materials and there dielectric constants…
Dielectric
Dielectric Constant Calculations
Design Of A Capacitor…

 To make the capacitor more effective in doing its tasks certain features of the
capacitor are adjusted to get to desired capacitance. Factors such as area of
plates distance between plates and the dielectric constants all affect the
capacitance of the capacitor. A general Equation relating all of the above is
given below:
Capacitors In Circuits
Capacitors In Series
 Total charge leaving battery =total charge acquired by the capacitors
 If V1, V2, V3 are the voltages across C1, C2 AND C3 respectively then by
conservation of energy.
V(TOTAL)=V1+V2+V3
 But from the equation V=Q/C where Q is the charge and V is the potential
difference across plate, and C is the capacitance. Therefore V(total),
Q/C(TOTAL)=Q/C1+Q/C2+Q/C3
Dividing by Q on both sides
1/C(TOTAL)=1/C1+1/C2+1/C3

V2 V3
 Capacitors In Parallel
 From previous slide, the total charge leaving battery is equal to the sum of
the charges accumulating on the capacitors.
Q(TOTAL)=Q1+Q2+Q3
 Hence; the voltages across each capacitor is the same and is equal to the
battery voltage using Kirchhoff's loop rule.
Recall C=Q/V, REARRANGING, Q=CV.
Applying to each capacitor
Q1=C1V,Q2=C2V,Q3=C3V
 Therefore: CV (total)=C1V+C2V+C3V, dividing by V on both sides gives
C(total)=C1+C2+C3
Energy Storage In
Capacitors
Steps in charging

1. When the capacitors have no charge on it the p.d is 0.

2. As the capacitor charges the p.d on the capacitor increases from V TO
V2 TO V3 etc. Hence the p.d decrease from V to 0( to the point where
the battery voltage equals the capacitor voltage).
3. Hence the average p.d that the charge passes through is V+0/2=V/2
4. Therefore the work done in moving a charge Q through an average p.d
ofV/2 is given by W=QV/2(THE ENERGY IN MOVING THE CHARGE
EQUALS THE ENERGY STORED IN THE CAPACITOR).
5. Also the energy stored is equal to the area under Q vs C graph
Equations For Energy Stored In A
Capacitor
 Substituting C=Q/V into W=QV/2 we obtain 3 useful equations for energy
stored in a capacitor.
 Charging And
Discharging Of A
Capacitor
Charging A Capacitor
 As the capacitor discharges across R , its stored charge decreases with time
and hence the magnitude of the current through R also decreases with time.
 The rate of decrease depends on the product of the Resistance and
Capacitance RC, KNOWN AS the Time Constant.
 When the capacitor is being charged, the voltage and charge increases with
time until they reach max values. The current is the only thing that decrease
over time for the charging process.
Equations For Graph Of Voltage, Current
And Charge for Charging Process

 Voltage:V0(1-e-t/RC)

 Current:I0e-t/RC

 Charge:Q0(1-e-t/RC)
 Discharging A Capacitor

 When the capacitor I being discharged the charge accumulated leaves the
capacitor and hence the voltage decreases as the p.d across plates decreases
and the current also decreases with time.
Equations For Graph Of Voltage, Current
And Charge for Discharging Process
 Voltage:V0e-t/RC

 Current:I0e-t/RC

 Charge:Q0e-t/RC
The Time Constant (RC)
 The time constant is defined as the time for which the p.d across the
capacitor to fall to 1/e of its initial value during a discharge. After
approximately 3 time constants the capacitor is fully charged or discharged.