Capacitor

Capacitance
* Definition of capacitance
A capacitor is a useful device in electrical circuits that allows us to
store charge and electrical energy in a controllable way. The simplest to
understand consists of two parallel conducting plates of area A separated
by a narrow air gap d. If charge +Q is placed on one plate, and -Q on the
other, the potential difference between them is V, and then the
capacitance is defined as C=Q/V. The SI unit is C/V, which is called the
Farad, named after the famous and creative scientist Michael Faraday
from the early 1800’s.

* Applications
* Radio tuner circuit uses variable capacitor
* Blocks DC voltages in ac circuits
* Act as switches in computer circuits
* Triggers the flash bulb in a camera
* Converts AC to DC in a filter circuit
 Capacitors
* Composed of two conductive plates separated by an insulator
(or dielectric).
* Commonly illustrated as two parallel metal plates separated by a
distance, d.

C = ε A/d
where ε = εr εo
εr is the relative dielectric constant
εo is the vacuum permittivity
 Effect of Dimensions
* Capacitance increases with
* increasing surface area of the plates,
* decreasing spacing between plates, and
* increasing the relative dielectric constant of the insulator
between the two plates.
* Charge is stored on the plates of the capacitor.
Equation:
Q = CV
Units:
Farad = Coulomb/Voltage
Farad is abbreviated as F
 separation
* Parallel plates make a great example d
for calculating capacitance, because
* The E field is constant, so easy to
calculate. E and dA
* The geometry is simple, only the area area A parallel
and plate separation are important. line of
integration
  V+ V−
ε 0 ∫ E ⋅ dA = q so q = ε 0 EA
Total charge q
V = Ed on inside of plate

ε 0 EA ε0 A
C = q /V = =
Ed d
  
ε 0 ∫ E ⋅ dA = q

q = ε 0 EA = ε 0 E (2πrL)

E = q /(2πε 0 rL)

q a dr q b L
2πε 0 L ∫b
V= = ln  C = q / V = 2πε 0
r 2πε 0 L  a  ln(b / a )
  
ε 0 ∫ E ⋅ dA = q

q = ε 0 EA = ε 0 E (4πr )
2

ab
C = q / V = 4πε 0
b−a
iin = i1 + i2 + i3 + i4
dv dv
i1 = C1 i2 = C2
dt dt
dv dv
i3 = C3 i4 = C4
i

dt dt
dv dv dv dv
iin = C1 + C2 + C3 + C4
dt dt dt dt
dv
iin = Ceq
dt
C eq = C1 + C2 + C3 + C4
vin = v1 + v2 + v3 + v4
t1 t1
1 1
v1 =
C1 ∫ idt
to
v2 =
C2 ∫ idt
to
t1 t1
1 1
v3 = ∫ idt v4 = ∫ idt
i

C3 to
C4 to
t1 t1 t1 t1
1 1 1 1
vin =
C1 ∫t idt + C2 ∫t idt + C3 ∫t idt + C4 ∫ idt
to
o o o

t1
1
vin =
Ceq ∫ idt
to

C eq = [(1 C1 ) + (1 C2 ) + (1 C3 ) + (1 C4 )]
−1
* If P capacitors are in parallel, then * If S capacitors are in series, then:

−1
P
 S
1 
Ceq = ∑ C P Ceq = ∑ 
p =1  s =1 C s 
 ε0 A
U = CV =
1
2
2
V2
2d
ε0 A 2 1 V 
2
U
u= = V = 2 ε0 
vol 2dAd d 

u = ε0E
1
2
2

Energy stored in electric field

October 10, 2007

1. (a) Find the equivalent capacitance for
the combination of capacitances shown in
Fig., across which potential difference V
is applied.

(b) The potential difference applied to

the input terminals in Fig. is 𝑉𝑉 = 12.5 𝑉𝑉.
What is the charge on 𝐶𝐶1 ?
2. A 20V battery is connected
across the capacitors of
capacitances 𝐶𝐶1 = 𝐶𝐶6 = 3𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇,
𝐶𝐶3 = 𝐶𝐶5 = 2𝐶𝐶2 = 2𝐶𝐶4 = 4𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇.
What are
(a)the equivalent capacitance of
the capacitors?
(b)the charge stored by 𝐶𝐶𝑒𝑒𝑒𝑒 ?
(c) 𝑉𝑉1 and 𝑞𝑞1 across capacitor 𝐶𝐶1 ?
(d)𝑉𝑉2 and 𝑞𝑞2 across capacitor 𝐶𝐶2 ?
(e) 𝑉𝑉3 and 𝑞𝑞3 across capacitor 𝐶𝐶3 ?
3. In Fig., 𝐶𝐶1 = 𝐶𝐶5 = 8.4𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇 and 𝐶𝐶2 = 𝐶𝐶3 = 𝐶𝐶4 =
4.2𝜇𝜇𝜇𝜇.The applied potential is 220 Volt. (a) What
is the equivalent capacitance of the network
between points a and b? (b) Calculate the charge
on each capacitor and the potential difference
across each capacitor.
4. Find the equivalent capacitance of the
group of capacitors shown in Fig.
* You may have wondered why we write ε0 (permittivity of free space),
with a little zero subscript. It turns out that other materials (water,
paper, plastic, even air) have different permittivities ε = κε0. The κ
is called the dielectric constant, and is a unitless number. For air, κ
= 1.00054 (so ε for air is for our purposes the same as for “free
space.”)
* In all of our equations where you see ε0, you can substitute κε0 when
considering some other materials (called dielectrics).
* The nice thing about this is that we can increase the capacitance of a
parallel plate capacitor by filling the space with a dielectric:

κε 0 A
C′ = = κC
d
Suppose we have a capacitor of value C0 that is charged to a potential
difference of V0 and then removed from the charging source

We would then find that it has a charge of Q = C 0V0

We now insert the dielectric material into the capacitor

We find that the potential difference decreases by a factor K

V0
V=
K
Or equivalently the capacitance has increased by a factor of K
C = K C0
This constant K is known as the dielectric constant and is dependent
upon the material used and is a number greater than 1
The product κ𝜀𝜀0 is called the permittivity of
the dielectric, denoted by 𝜀𝜀,
𝜀𝜀 = κ𝜀𝜀0
* A dielectric material is made of molecules.
* Polar dielectrics already have a dipole moment (like
the water molecule).
* Non-polar dielectrics are not naturally polar, but
actually stretch in an electric field, to become polar.
* The molecules of the dielectric align with the
applied electric field in a manner to oppose the
electric field.
* This reduces the electric field, so that the net
electric field is less than it was for a given charge on
the plates.
* This lowers the potential (case b of the previous
slide).
* If the plates are attached to a battery (case a of the
previous slide), more charge has to flow onto the
plates.
* Gauss’ Law holds without modification, but
notice that the charge enclosed by our
gaussian surface is less, because it includes
the induced charge q’ on the dielectric.
* For a given charge q on the plate, the charge
enclosed is q – q’, which means that the
electric field must be smaller. The effect is
to weaken the field.
* When attached to a battery, of course, more
charge will flow onto the plates until the
electric field is again E0.
5. Suppose the parallel plates of a capacitor each have an
area of 2000𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐2 and are 1𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 apart. We connect the
capacitor to a power supply, charge it to a potential
difference 𝑉𝑉0 = 3𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 and disconnect the power supply. We
then insert a sheet of insulating plastic material between
the plates, completely filling the space between them. We
find that the potential difference decreases to 1.00 𝑘𝑘𝑘𝑘 while
the charge on each capacitor plate remains constant. Find
(a) the original capacitance 𝐶𝐶0 (b) the magnitude of charge
on each plate; (c) the capacitance after the dielectric is
inserted; (d) the dielectric constant of the dielectric; (e) the
permittivity of the dielectric; (f ) the magnitude of the
induced charge on each face of the dielectric; (g) the
original electric field between the plates; and (h) the
electric field after the dielectric is inserted.
Figure shows a parallel-plate capacitor of plate area A and plate separation d. A
potential difference 𝑉𝑉0 is applied between the plates by connecting a battery
between them. The battery is then disconnected, and a dielectric slab of
thickness b and dielectric constant κ is placed between the plates as shown.
Assume 𝐴𝐴 = 115 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐2 , 𝑑𝑑 = 1.24 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐, 𝑉𝑉0 = 85.5 𝑉𝑉, 𝑏𝑏 = 0.780 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐, and 𝑘𝑘 = 2.61.

(a) What is the capacitance C0 before the

dielectric slab is inserted?
(b) What free charge appears on the
plates?
(c) What is the electric field 𝐸𝐸0 in the
gaps between the plates and the
dielectric slab?
(d) What is the electric field 𝐸𝐸1 in the
dielectric slab?
(e) What is the potential difference V
between the plates after the slab has
been introduced?
(f) What is the capacitance with the slab
in place between the plates of the
capacitor?