SMD capacitors testing

Thread Starter

dazzer7

Joined May 7, 2016
26
I have started to learn how to inspect for a bad or faulty capacitor , I have some ways of finding bad caps with the multimeter and ESR meter, But I have noticed that they all rely on me knowing some of the capacitor specs , unless anyone knows how I can tell if its good or bad without the capacitor spec ? Because I have noticed that a lot of the smd capacitors don’t have values on them this makes it hard for me to tell if its faulty with my methods of testing .
 

ian field

Joined Oct 27, 2012
6,536
I have started to learn how to inspect for a bad or faulty capacitor , I have some ways of finding bad caps with the multimeter and ESR meter, But I have noticed that they all rely on me knowing some of the capacitor specs , unless anyone knows how I can tell if its good or bad without the capacitor spec ? Because I have noticed that a lot of the smd capacitors don’t have values on them this makes it hard for me to tell if its faulty with my methods of testing .
The only failure mode I've observed on SMD ceramics is cracking. The molded electrolytics are mostly tantalum and more likely to be leaky than high ESR. The aluminium electrolytics are pretty much no different to through hole types, but you have to watch out for organic semiconductor type that look similar. They were a flash in the pan - I don't see many these days.

Not many ESR meters read anything useful under 1uF - a lot of them are not much good under 47uF.
 
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