12/9/2009 Ceramic capacitor - Wikipedia, the free…

Ceramic capacitor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In electronics ceramic capacitor is a capacitor constructed of alternating layers of metal and ceramic, with the
ceramic material acting as the dielectric. The temperature coefficient depends on whether the dielectric is Class 1 or
Class 2. A ceramic capacitor (especially the class 2) often has high dissipation factor, high frequency coefficient of
dissipation.

Contents
1 Construction
2 HF use
3 Classes of ceramic capacitors
4 Microphony
5 Coding
6 References

Construction
A ceramic capacitor is a two-terminal, non-polar device.
The classical ceramic capacitor is the "disc capacitor". This
device pre-dates the transistor and was used extensively in
vacuum-tube equipment (e.g., radio receivers) from about
1930 through the 1950s, and in discrete transistor Ceramic capacitors
equipment from the 1950s through the 1980s. As of 2007,
ceramic disc capacitors are in widespread use in electronic equipment, providing high capacity & small size at low
price compared to other low value capacitor types.

Ceramic capacitors come in various shapes and styles, including:

disc, resin coated, with through-hole leads

multilayer rectangular block, surface mount
bare leadless disc, sits in a slot in the PCB and is soldered in place, used for UHF applications
tube shape, not popular now

HF use
Ceramic capacitors are suitable for moderately high-frequency work (into the high hundreds of megahertz range, or,
with great care, into the low gigahertz range), as modern ceramic caps are fairly non-inductive compared to the
other major classes of capacitors (film and electrolytic). Capacitor technologies with higher self-resonant
frequencies tend to be expensive and esoteric (typically, mica or glass capacitors).

Sample self-resonant frequencies for one set of C0G and one set of X7R ceramic capacitors are:
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10pF 100pF 1nF 10nF 100nF 1uF

C0G (Class 1) 1550MHz 460MHz 160MHz 55MHz
X7R (Class 2) 190MHz 56MHz 22MHz 10MHz

Classes of ceramic capacitors

Three classes of ceramic capacitors are commonly available:[1] [2]

Class I capacitors: accurate, temperature-compensating capacitors. They are the most stable over voltage,
temperature, and to some extent, frequency. They also have the lowest losses. On the other hand, they have the
lowest volumetric efficiency. A typical class I capacitor will have a temperature coefficient of 30ppm/C. This will
typically be fairly linear with temperature. These also allow for high Q filters -- a typical class I capacitor will have a
dissipation factor of 0.15%. Very high accuracy (~1%) class I capacitors are available (typical ones will be 5% or
10%). The highest accuracy class 1 capacitors are designated C0G or NP0

Class II capacitors: better volumetric efficiency, but lower accuracy and stability. A typical class II capacitor may
change capacitance by 15% over a -55C to 85C temperature range. A typical class II capacitor will have a
dissipation factor of 2.5%. It will have average to poor accuracy (from 10% down to +20/-80%).

Class III capacitors: high volumetric efficiency, but poor accuracy and stability. A typical class III capacitor will
change capacitance by -22% to +56% over a temperature range of 10C-55C. It will have a dissipation factor of
4%. It will have fairly poor accuracy (commonly, 20%, or +80/-20%). These are typically used as decoupling or in
other power supply applications.

At one point, Class IV capacitors were also available, with worse electrical characteristics than Class III, but even
better volumetric efficiency. They are now rather rare and considered obsolete, as modern multilayer ceramics can
offer better performance in a compact package.

These correspond roughly to low K, medium K, and high K. Note that none of the classes are "better" than any
others -- the relative performance depends on application. Class I capacitors are physically larger than class III
capacitors, and for bypassing and other non-filtering applications, the accuracy, stability, and loss factor may be
unimportant, while cost and volumetric efficiency may be. As such, Class I capacitors are primarily used in filtering
applications, where the main competition is from film capacitors in low frequency applications, and more esoteric
capacitors in RF applications. Class III capacitors are typically used in power supply applications. Traditionally,
they had no competition in this niche, as they were limited to small sizes. As ceramic technology has improved,
ceramic capacitors are now commonly available in values of up to 100uF, and they are increasingly starting to
compete with electrolytic capacitors, where ceramics offer much better electrical performance at prices that, while
still much higher than electrolytic, are becoming increasingly reasonable as the technology improves.

Microphony
Some ceramic capacitors are slightly microphonic.

Coding
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There is a three digit code printed on a ceramic capacitor specifying its value. The first two digits are the two
significant figures and the third digit is a base 10 multiplier. The value is given in picofarads (pF). A letter suffix
indicates the tolerance[1] (http://staff.bcc.edu/eet/Capacitor_Coding.html) :

C ± 0.25pF M ± 20%
D ± 0.5pF P +100 -0%
J ± 5% Y -20 +50%
K ± 10% Z -20 + 80%

Example: a label of "104K" indicates 10×104 pF = 100,000 pF = 100 nF = 0.1uF ± 10%

There is also an EIA three character code that indicates temperature coefficient. For non-temperature-
compensating capacitor, the code consists of three letters. The first character is a letter that gives the low-end
operating temperature. The second is a digit gives the high-end operating temperature. The final letter gives
capacitance change over that temperature range:

Letter (low temp) Digit (high temp) Letter (change)

X= -55°C (-67°F) 2= +45°C (+113°F) D= ±3.3%
Y= -30°C (-22°F) 4= +65°C (+149°F) E= ±4.7%
Z= +10°C (+50°F) 5= +85°C (+185°F) F= ±7.5%
6=+105°C (+221°F) P= ±10%
7=+125°C (+257°F) R= ±15%
S= ±22%
T= +22 to -33%
U= +22 to -56%
V= +22 to -82%

For instance, a Z5U capacitor will operate from +10°C to +85°C with a capacitance change of at most +22% to -
56%. An X7R capacitor will operate from -55°C to +125°C with a capacitance change of at most ±15%.

Temperature-compensated capacitors use a different EIA code. Here, the first letter gives the significant figure of
the change in capacitance over temperature in ppm/C. The second character gives the multiplier. The third character
gives the maximum error from that in PPM/C. All ratings are from 25-85C:

Significant Figure Multiplier Tolerance

C: 0.0 0: -1 G: ±30
B: 0.3 1: -10 H: ±60
L: 0.8 2: -100 J: ±120
A: 0.9 3: -1000 K: ±250
M: 1.0 4: +1 L: ±500
P: 1.5 6: +10 M: ±1000

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R: 2.2 7: +100 N: ±2500
S: 3.3 8: +1000
T: 4.7
V: 5.6
U: 7.5

For instance, a C0G will have 0 drift, with an error of ±30PPM/C, while a P3K will have -1500PPM/C drift, with
a maximum error of ±250PPM/C.

Note that in addition to the EIA capacitor codes, there are industry capacitor codes and military capacitor codes.

References
1. ^ Kemet: Ceramic leaded Capacitors F-3101F 06/05
(http://www.kemet.com/kemet/web/homepage/kechome.nsf/vapubfiles/F3101_goldmax.pdf/$file/F3101_goldmax.pdf)
2. ^ Ceramic (http://my.execpc.com/~endlr/ceramic.html)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceramic_capacitor"
Categories: Capacitors

This page was last modified on 22 November 2009 at 22:52.

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