What Does The Numbers On Small Ceramic Capcitors Mean

Although they work in completely different ways capacitors and batteries both store electrical energy if you have read how batteries work then you know that a battery has two terminals inside the battery chemical reactions produce electrons on one terminal and absorb electrons on the other terminal.

What does the numbers on small ceramic capcitors mean.

Ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. 5 µf 6 4 7 to 5 3 µf 4 µf 6 3 76 to 4 24 µf. To get this value you multiply the leading digits 68 in this case by 10 raised to the power of the last digit 3 and the result is the capacitance in picofarads in this case we get 68x10 3 pf. When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads.

7 is not. 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. In a way a capacitor is a little like a battery. Characteristics precision and tolerances.

The above image shows a mylar film capacitor. If you have a capacitor that has nothing other than a three digit number printed on it the third digit represents the number of zeros to add to the end of the first two digits. The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier. The first is used with small ceramic capacitors and appears as a single letter.

Unlike their electrolytic counterparts ceramic capacitors hold a smaller charge but also leak less current. Many capacitor manufacturers use a shorthand notation to indicate capacitance on small caps. They also happen to be the cheapest capacitor of the bunch so stock up. This letter represents the tolerance of the capacitor meaning how close the actual value of the capacitor can be expected to be to the indicated value of the capacitor.

The second is used for a variety of capacitor types and is indicated by a unique assortment of lettrs and numbers which represent the low and high temperature requirements the lower and upper acceptable temperature range of operating the capacitor and its. However small capacitors don t have enough room for all that. The top 683 marking indicates the capacitance value which is 68 000 picofarads pf. The two most common types are multi layer ceramic capacitors and ceramic disc capacitors.

There are three exceptions for the last digit. There are two classes of ceramic capacitors available today. A ceramic capacitor is a capacitor which uses a ceramic material as the dielectric. This also is the same for 5 µf and the 4 µf capacitors.