How To Read Ceramic Disk Capacitors

An american company in the midst of the apollo program launched in 1961 pioneered the stacking of multiple discs to create a monolithic block.

How to read ceramic disk capacitors.

The third digit is the multiplier which is 1000. This code indicates what the capacitance of the capacitor is. Here is how to read ceramic capacitor values. For example if a ceramic capacitor has a code 5 and other has 47 their respective capacitance values are 5 pf and 47 pf.

Reading values printed on electrolytic capacitors is easy digits on ceramic capacitors need to know some theory. Ceramic capacitors encoding consists 1 3 digits. Many larger capacitors like electrolytic capacitors disc ceramics and many film capacitors are large enough to have their markings printed on the case. The letter j signifies the tolerance of 5.

Click here for resistor colour code and smd resistor code ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. However small capacitors don t have enough room for all that. Encoding for ceramic capacitors. The first two significant digits represent the first two digits of the actual value which is 47.

Method of finding the value meaning of codes of capacitor. The example capacitor has a 3 digit number printed on it 103. Ceramic disc capacitor code label will normally consist of three numbers followed by a letter. Many capacitor manufacturers use a shorthand notation to indicate capacitance on small caps.

On a larger capacitors there is sufficient space to mark the value the tolerance working voltage and often other data such as the ripple voltage. 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. Ceramic disc capacitors like the one on the left are printed with a code. I have always been unaware of the markings on a disc ceramic capacitor such as j m and other symbols.

If there s enough room on the capacitor most manufacturers of electronics components print the capacitance directly on the capacitor along with other information such as the working voltage and perhaps the tolerance. If the capacitor code consist only 1 or 2 digits it is simply their capacitance value in picofarads pf. The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier. The first two digits in this case the 10 give us the first part of the value.

The early style of the ceramic disc capacitor could be more cheaply produced than the common ceramic tube capacitors in the 1950s and 1970s. Taking a look. Read the tolerance code on ceramic capacitors.