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Keywords : radial lead type, axial lead type, plastic film, paper, polystyrene.

Film Capacitors which use polystyrene, polycarbonate or Teflon as their dielectrics are sometimes called "Plastic capacitors". The construction of plastic film capacitors is similar to that for paper film capacitors but use a plastic film instead of paper. The main advantage of plastic film capacitors compared to impregnated-paper types is that they operate well under conditions of high temperature, have smaller tolerances, a very long service life and high reliability. Examples of film capacitors are the rectangular metallised film and cylindrical film & foil types as shown below.

Radial Lead Type
Axial Lead Type

The film and foil types of capacitors are made from long thin strips of thin metal foil with the dielectric material sandwiched together which are wound into a tight roll and then sealed in paper or metal tubes.  These film types require a much thicker dielectric film to reduce the risk of tears or punctures in the film, and is therefore more suited to lower capacitance values and larger case sizes.

Metallized foil capacitors have the conductive film metallized sprayed directly onto each side of the dielectric which gives the capacitor self-healing properties and can therefore use much thinner dielectric films. This allows for higher capacitance values and smaller case sizes for a given capacitance. Film and foil capacitors are generally used for higher power and more precise applications.