capacitor circuits

Thread Starter

bujak18

Joined Nov 12, 2008
49
ok! which formulas would not be correct for series capacitor circuits if the capacitors were not assumed to be ideal? why? :(
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
Ideal series capacitors are calculated the same way as resistors in parallel; just like ideal parallel capacitors are calculated the same way as resistors in series.

The problem is that parasitic resistance and inductance are not taken into account in the standard formulas.

At very low frequencies, the parasitics have little effect. As freqencies increase (even in the audio ranges) the parasitic resistance of capacitors (particularly electrolytics) becomes quite pronounced.

Have a look at this page:
http://www.ecircuitcenter.com/Circuits/cmodel1/cmodel1.htm
In our E-book:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_13/4.html (Series and Parallel Capacitors)
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_2/chpt_4/5.html
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_13/5.html
Simple series circuits:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_5/2.html
 
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