4.1. Interpret technical drawing.

INTERPRETING CIRCUIT WITH CAPACITOR

4.2. Identify different kinds of technical drawing.
4.3. Calculate the total capacitance of capacitor in a circuit.
4.4. Explain the uses and application of each component

INTRODUCTION
There are two common ways to draw a capacitor in a schematic. They always
have two terminals, which go on to connect to the rest of the circuit. The
capacitors symbol consists of two parallel lines, which are either flat or curved;
both lines should be parallel to each other, close, but not touching (this is
actually representative of how the capacitor is made. Hard to describe, easier to
just show:

Much like resistors, multiple capacitors can be combined in series or parallel to

create a combined equivalent capacitance. Capacitors, however, add together in
a way that's completely the opposite of resistors.

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Capacitors in Series
Capacitors are connected together in series when they are daisy chained 1. What are the
together in a single line. different types
of circuit?
For series connected capacitors, the charging current (iC) flowing through 2. What is the
the capacitors is THE SAME for all capacitors as it only has one path to importance of
follow. capacitor in
each circuit?
Then, Capacitors in Series all have the same current flowing through 3. How the
them as iT = i1 = i2 = i3 etc. Therefore, each capacitor will store the same capacitor
amount of electrical charge, Q on its plates regardless of its capacitance. helps the
This is because the charge stored by a plate of any one capacitor must whole circuit?
have come from the plate of its adjacent capacitor. Therefore, capacitors
connected together in series must have the same charge.
QT = Q1 = Q2 = Q3 …. etc.

Consider the following circuit in which the three

capacitors, C1, C2 and C3 are all connected together in a series branch
across a supply voltage between points A and B.

In the previous parallel circuit, we saw that the total capacitance, CT of the circuit was equal to the sum
of all the individual capacitors added together. In a series connected circuit however, the total or
equivalent capacitance CT is calculated differently.

In the series circuit above the right hand plate of the first capacitor, C1 is connected to the left hand plate
of the second capacitor, C2 whose right hand plate is connected to the left hand plate of the third
capacitor, C3. Then this series connection means that in a DC connected circuit, capacitor C2 is
effectively isolated from the circuit.

The result of this is that the effective plate area has decreased to the smallest individual capacitance
connected in the series chain.

Series Capacitor Equation

When adding together Capacitors in Series, the reciprocal (1/C) of the individual capacitors are all
added together (just like resistors in parallel) instead of the capacitances themselves. Then the total
value for capacitors in series equals the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of the individual
capacitances.

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Capacitor in Series Example No.1

Taking the three capacitor values from the above example, we can calculate the total capacitance, CT for
the three capacitors in series as:

One important point to remember about capacitors that are connected together in a series configuration,
is that the total circuit capacitance (CT) of any number of capacitors connected together in series will
always be LESS than the value of the smallest capacitor in the series and in our example
above CT = 0.055μF with the value of the smallest capacitor in the series chain is only 0.1μF.

This reciprocal method of calculation can be used for calculating any number of individual capacitors
connected together in a single series network. If, however, there are only two capacitors in series, then
a much simpler and quicker formula can be used and is given as:

If the two series connected capacitors are equal and of the same value, that is: C1 = C2, we can simplify
the above equation further as follows to find the total capacitance of the series combination.

Capacitors in Series Example 2

Find the overall capacitance and the individual rms voltage drops across the following sets of two
capacitors in series when connected to a 12V AC supply.
• two capacitors each with a capacitance of 47nF
• one capacitor of 470nF connected in series to a capacitor of 1μF

a) Total Equal Capacitance,

Capacitors in Series Summary

Then to summarize, the total or equivalent capacitance, CT of a circuit containing Capacitors in
Series is the reciprocal of the sum of the reciprocals of all of the individual capacitance’s added
together.

Also, for capacitors connected in series, all the series connected capacitors will have the same
charging current flowing through them as iT = i1 = i2 = i3 etc. Two or more capacitors in series will
always have equal amounts of coulomb charge across their plates.

Capacitor in Parallel
Capacitors are connected together in parallel when both of its terminals are connected to each terminal
of another capacitor.

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In the following circuit the capacitors, C1, C2 and C3 are all connected together in a parallel branch
between points A and B as shown.

When capacitors are connected together in parallel the total or equivalent capacitance, CT in the circuit
is equal to the sum of all the individual capacitors added together. This is because the top plate of
capacitor, C1 is connected to the top plate of C2 which is connected to the top plate of C3 and so on.

The same is also true of the capacitor’s bottom plates. Then it is the same as if the three sets of plates
were touching each other and equal to one large single plate thereby increasing the effective plate area
in m2.

Since capacitance, C is related to plate area (C = ε(A/d)) the capacitance value of the combination will
also increase. Then the total capacitance value of the capacitors connected together in parallel is actually
calculated by adding the plate area together. In other words, the total capacitance is equal to the sum of
all the individual capacitances in parallel. You may have noticed that the total capacitance of parallel
capacitors is found in the same way as the total resistance of series resistors.

Parallel Capacitor Equation

When adding together capacitors in parallel, they must all be converted to the same capacitance units,
whether it is μF, nF or pF. Also, we can see that the current flowing through the total capacitance
value, CT is the same as the total circuit current, iT

Capacitors in Parallel Example No. 1

So, by taking the values of the three capacitors from the above example, we can calculate the total
equivalent circuit capacitance CT as being:
CT = C1 + C2 + C3 = 0.1uF + 0.2uF + 0.3uF = 0.6uF

One important point to remember about parallel connected capacitor circuits, the total capacitance (CT)
of any two or more capacitors connected together in parallel will always be GREATER than the value
of the largest capacitor in the group as we are adding together values. So, in our example
above CT = 0.6μF whereas the largest value capacitor is only 0.3μF.

When 4, 5, 6 or even more capacitors are connected together the total capacitance of the
circuit CT would still be the sum of all the individual capacitors added together and as we know now,
the total capacitance of a parallel circuit is always greater than the highest value capacitor.

This is because we have effectively increased the total surface area of the plates. If we do this with two
identical capacitors, we have doubled the surface area of the plates which in turn doubles the capacitance
of the combination and so on.

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Capacitors in Parallel Example No2
Calculate the combined capacitance in micro-Farads (μF) of the following capacitors when they are
connected together in a parallel combination:
• two capacitors each with a capacitance of 47nF
• one capacitor of 470nF connected in parallel to a capacitor of 1μF
a) Total Capacitance,
CT = C1 + C2 = 47nF + 47nF = 94nF or 0.094μF

b) Total Capacitance,
CT = C1 + C2 = 470nF + 1μF
therefore, CT = 470nF + 1000nF = 1470nF or 1.47μF

So, the total or equivalent capacitance, CT of an electrical circuit containing two or more Capacitors in
Parallel is the sum of the all the individual capacitances added together as the effective area of the plates
is increased.

In our next tutorial about capacitors, we look at connecting together Capacitors in Series and the affect
this combination has on the circuit’s total capacitance, voltage and current.

Directions: Inside the box below draw the given circuit and compute for the total capacitance.
Series
C1=223 C2=422 C3=1500µF

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Directions: In provided box, draw the following circuit using schematic diagram for 20 points each.
Series Parallel
C1=345 C2=245J C3=1000µF C1=124 C2=323K C3=1.5µF

1-3 4-6 7-10

Content The symbol is There is one The circuit is correct and
incorrect and too hard incorrect symbol in all the symbol is correct.
to recognize. the circuit.
Accuracy The resistance value is Displays Demonstrates
incorrect. knowledge about comprehensive
the circuit. knowledge with
understanding in
illustrating a circuit.

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Capacitors - learn.sparkfun.com. (2021). Electronics.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/capacitors/all

check capacitor with analog multimeter. (2018b, January 4). YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4QxQ4OHxsE

Ching, C. L. (2021). Edited CBLM Epas - PDF Free Download. Qdoc.Tips. https://qdoc.tips/edited-
cblm-epas-pdf-free.html

Components | Tutorials - learn.sparkfun.com. (2021). Electronics.

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/tags/components?page=all

Storr, W. (2018, July 8). Resistors in Series - Series Connected Resistors. Basic Electronics Tutorials.
https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/resistor/res_3.html#.XxZ5CDl87Sk.gmail

Teja, R. (2021b, June 19). How to Test a Capacitor? Electronics Hub.

https://www.electronicshub.org/how-to-test-a-capacitor/

Module Creator/Curator : Mr. ALDWIN E. LACSA

: Mrs. ANGELICA B. OLARTE
Template and Layout Designer : Ms. TIMMY ANNE A. LOPEZ
: Mrs. ANGELICA B. OLARTE

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