Capacitors and inductors We continue with our analysis of linear circuits by introducing two new passive and linear elements the capacitor and the inductor All the methods developed so far for the analysis of linear resistive circuits are applicable to circuits that contain capacitors and inductors Unlike the resistor which dissipates energy ideal capacitors and inductors store energy rather than dissipating it Capacitor In both digital and analog electronic circuits a capacitor is a fundamental element It enables the filtering of signals and it provides a fundamental memory element The capacitor is an element that stores energy in an electric field The circuit symbol and associated electrical variables for the capacitor is shown on Figure 1 C i v Figure 1 Circuit symbol for capacitor The capacitor may be modeled as two conducting plates separated by a dielectric as shown on Figure 2 When a voltage v is applied across the plates a charge q accumulates on one plate and a charge q on the other insulator plate of area A q and thickness s v E d q s Figure 2 Capacitor model 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 1 If the plates have an area A and are separated by a distance d the electric field generated across the plates is E q 1 1 and the voltage across the capacitor plates is v Ed qd A 1 2 The current flowing into the capacitor is the rate of change of the charge across the dq capacitor plates i And thus we have dt i dq d A A dv dv v C dt dt d d dt dt 1 3 The constant of proportionality C is referred to as the capacitance of the capacitor It is a function of the geometric characteristics of the capacitor plate separation d and plate area A and by the permittivity of the dielectric material between the plates C A d 1 4 Capacitance represents the efficiency of charge storage and it is measured in units of Farads F The current voltage relationship of a capacitor is i C dv dt 1 5 The presence of time in the characteristic equation of the capacitor introduces new and exciting behavior of the circuits that contain them Note that for DC constant in time dv signals 0 the capacitor acts as an open circuit i 0 Also note the capacitor does dt not like voltage discontinuities since that would require that the current goes to infinity which is not physically possible If we integrate Equation 1 5 over time we have 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 2 t t dv idt C dt dt 1 6 t v 1 i dt C 1 7 t 1 i dt v 0 C0 The constant of integration v 0 represents the voltage of the capacitor at time t 0 The presence of the constant of integration v 0 is the reason for the memory properties of the capacitor Let s now consider the circuit shown on Figure 3 where a capacitor of capacitance C is connected to a time varying voltage source v t i t v t C v Figure 3 Fundamental capacitor circuit If the voltage v t has the form v t A cos t 1 8 dv dt C A sin t 1 9 Then the current i t becomes i t C C A cos t 2 Therefore the current going through a capacitor and the voltage across the capacitor are 90 degrees out of phase It is said that the current leads the voltage by 90 degrees The general plot of the voltage and current of a capacitor is shown on Figure 4 The current leads the voltage by 90 degrees 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 3 Figure 4 If we take the ratio of the peak voltage to the peak current we obtain the quantity Xc 1 C 1 10 Xc has the units of Volts Amperes or Ohms and thus it represents some type of resistance Note that as the frequency 0 the quantity Xc goes to infinity which implies that the capacitor resembles an open circuit Capacitors do like to pass current at low frequencies As the frequency becomes very large the quantity Xc goes to zero which implies that the capacitor resembles a short circuit Capacitors like to pass current at high frequencies Capacitors connected in series and in parallel combine to an equivalent capacitance Let s first consider the parallel combination of capacitors as shown on Figure 5 Note that all capacitors have the same voltage v across them i t i1 i2 i3 in v t v C1 C2 C3 Cn Figure 5 Parallel combination of capacitors 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 4 By applying KCL we obtain And since ik Ck i i1 i 2 i3 in 1 11 dv dv dv dv C 2 C 3 Cn dt dt dt dt dv C1 C 2 C 3 Cn Ceq dt dv Ceq dt 1 12 dv we have dt i C1 Capacitors connected in parallel combine like resistors in series Next let s look at the series combination of capacitors as shown on Figure 6 C1 C2 C3 v1 v2 v3 i t Cn vn v t Figure 6 Series combination of n capacitors Now by applying KVL around the loop and using Equation 1 7 we have v v1 v 2 v3 vn t 1 1 1 1 i t dt v 0 C1 C 2 C 3 Cn 0 1 Ceq 1 13 t 1 i t dt v 0 Ceq 0 Capacitors in series combine like resistors in parallel 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 5 By extension we can calculate the voltage division rule for capacitors connected in series Here let s consider the case of only two capacitors connected in series as shown on Figure 7 i t v1 C1 v2 C2 v t Figure 7 Series combination of two capacitors The same current flows through both capacitors and so the voltages v1 and v2 across them are given by 1 t 1 1 14 v1 idt C1 0 t v2 1 idt C 2 0 1 15 And KVL around the loop results in t 1 1 v t idt C1 C 2 0 Which in turn gives the voltages v1 and v2 in terms of v and the capacitances C2 C1 C 2 C1 v2 v C1 C 2 v1 v 1 16 1 17 1 18 Similarly in the parallel arrangement of capacitors Figure 8 the current division rule is 1 i1 i C1 C1 C 2 1 19 i2 i C2 C1 C 2 1 20 Assume here that both capacitors are initially uncharged 6 071 22 071 Spring 2006 Chaniotakis and Cory 6 i t i t i1 v C1 i2 C2 Figure 8 Parallel arrangement of two capacitors The instantaneous power delivered to a capacitor is P t i t v t 1 21 The energy stored in a capacitor is the integral of the instantaneous power Assuming that the capacitor had no …