Capacitances and Inductances

We have studied circuits composed of resistances and sources.

Resistors convert electrical energy into heat

Inductors and capacitors are energy-storage elements. They can store

energy and later return it to the circuit.

Capacitors and inductors do not generate energy—only the energy that

has been put into these elements can be extracted.

Like resistors, they are said to be passive elements.

Electromagnetic field theory is the basic approach to the study of the effects of
electrical charge.

However, circuit theory is a simplification of field theory that is much easier to apply.

Capacitance is the circuit property that accounts for energy stored in electric fields.

Inductance accounts for energy stored in magnetic fields.

The voltage across an ideal inductor is proportional to the time derivative of the
current.

The voltage across an ideal capacitor is proportional to the time integral of the
current.

Mutual inductance, a circuit property that accounts for magnetic fields that are
mutual to several inductors.

The mutual inductance forms the basis for transformers, which are critical to the
transmission of electrical power over long distances.
Several types of transducers are based on inductance and capacitance.

For example, one type of microphone is basically a capacitor in which the capacitance
changes with sound pressure.

An application of mutual inductance is the linear variable differential transformer in

which position of a moving iron core is converted into a voltage.

An electrical signal that represents a physical variable such as displacement

is noisy.

To obtain an electrical signal representing the displacement of each wheel, the rapid
fluctuations due to road roughness must be eliminated.

We see that this can be accomplished using inductance and capacitance in circuits
known as filters.
Capacitors are constructed by separating two conducting plates, which are usually
metallic, by a thin layer of insulating material.

In a parallel-plate capacitor, the sheets are flat and parallel

The insulating material between the plates, called a dielectric, can be air, Mylar,
polyester, polypropylene, mica, or a variety of other materials.

What happens as current flows through a

capacitor

In most metals, current consists of

electrons moving, and conventional
current flowing downward represents
electrons actually moving upward.
As electrons move upward, they collect on the lower plate of the capacitor.

Thus, the lower plate accumulates a net negative charge that produces an electric field
in the dielectric.

This electric field forces electrons to leave the upper plate at the same rate that they
accumulate on the lower plate.

Therefore, current appears to flow through the capacitor. As the charge builds up,
voltage appears across the capacitor.

We say that the charge accumulated on

one plate is stored in the capacitor.

However, the total charge on both plates is

always zero, because positive charge on
one plate is balanced by negative charge of
equal magnitude on the other plate.
Stored Charge in Terms of Voltage

In an ideal capacitor, the stored charge q is proportional to the voltage between the
plates

The constant of proportionality is the capacitance C, which has units of Farads (F).
Farads are equivalent to coulombs per volt.

The charge q is the net charge on the plate corresponding to the positive reference for v.

Thus, if v is positive, there is positive charge on the plate corresponding to the positive
reference for v.

On the other hand, if v is negative, there is negative charge on the plate corresponding to
the positive reference.

A farad is a very large amount of capacitance. picofarads (1 pF = 10−12 F)

Capacitances in the femtofarad (1 fF = 10−15 F) range
Current in Terms of Voltage

Current is the time rate of flow of charge. Taking the derivative of each
side of Equation

Ordinarily, capacitance is not a function of time. The relationship

between current and voltage becomes

As voltage increases, current flows through the capacitance and charge accumulates on
each plate. If the voltage remains constant, the charge is constant and the current is
zero. Thus, a capacitor appears to be an open circuit for a steady dc voltage.

The circuit symbol for capacitance and the references for v and i are shown. Notice that
the references for the voltage and current have the passive configuration.

The current reference direction points into the positive reference polarity.
If the references are opposite to the passive configuration
Voltage in Terms of Current

Suppose that we know the current i(t) flowing through a capacitance C and we want
to compute the charge and voltage.

Since current is the time rate of charge flow, we must integrate the current to compute
charge. Often in circuit analysis problems, action starts at some initial time t0, and the
initial charge q(t0) is known. Then, charge as a function of time is given by

solving for the voltage v(t),

the initial voltage across the capacitance is given by

Substituting this into Equation

Usually, we take the initial time to be t0 = 0.

Stored Energy
The power delivered to a circuit element is the product of the current and the voltage
(provided that the references have the passive configuration):

substitute for the current,

Suppose we have a capacitor that initially has v(t0) = 0. Then the initial stored
electrical energy is zero, and we say that the capacitor is uncharged.

Furthermore, suppose that between time t0 and some later time t the voltage changes
from 0 to v(t) volts.

As the voltage magnitude increases, energy is delivered to the capacitor,

where it is stored in the electric field between the plates.

If we integrate the power delivered from t0 to t, we find the energy delivered

Canceling differential time and changing the limits to the corresponding voltages

Integrating and evaluating, we get

This represents energy stored in the capacitance that can be returned to the circuit.

We can obtain two alternative expressions for the stored energy:

Capacitances in Parallel

The same voltage appears across each of the

elements in a parallel circuit.

The equivalent capacitance as the sum of the

capacitances in parallel

The current in the equivalent capacitance is the

same as the total current flowing through the
parallel circuit.
Capacitances in Series

Capacitance of the Parallel-Plate Capacitor (Physical Characteristics)

The area of each plate is denoted as A. (Actually, A is the area of one side of the plate.) The
rectangular plate shown has a width W, length L, and area A = W × L. The plates
are parallel, and the distance between them is denoted as d.

If the distance d between the plates is much

smaller than both the width and the
length of the plates, the capacitance is
approximately
Practical Capacitors
To achieve capacitances on the order of a microfarad, the dimensions of parallel-plate
capacitors are too large for compact electronic circuits such as portable computers or
cellular telephones.

Frequently, capacitors are constructed by alternating the plates with two layers of dielectric,
which are then rolled to fit in a smaller area. By staggering the plates before rolling, electrical
contact can be made with the plates from the ends of the roll.

To achieve small-volume capacitors, a very thin dielectric having a high dielectric

constant is desirable. However, dielectric materials break down and become
conductors when the electric field intensity (volts per meter) is too high.

Thus, real capacitors have maximum voltage

ratings.
For a given voltage, the electric field intensity
becomes higher as the dielectric layer becomes
thinner.
Clearly, an engineering trade-off exists between
compact size and voltage rating.
Parasitic Effects

Real capacitors are not always well modeled simply as a capacitance. A

more complete circuit model for a capacitor is shown.

In addition to the capacitance C, series resistance Rs appears because of

the resistivity of the material composing the plates.

A series inductance Ls occurs because the current flowing through the

capacitor creates a magnetic field.

Finally, no practical material is a perfect insulator, and the resistance Rp

represents conduction through the dielectric.

We call Rs, Ls, and Rp parasitic elements. We design capacitors to

minimize the effects of parasitic circuit elements consistent with other
requirements such as physical size and voltage rating.

However, parasitics are always present to some degree. In designing

circuits, care must be used to select components for which the
parasitic effects do not prevent proper operation of the circuit.
Thank You