jb What does capacitor marking mean?

0 comments 2012-3-31 8:50:58 views

Most capacitors have numbers printed on their bodies to indicate their electrical characteristics. Large capacitors like electrolytic capacitors usually display the actual capacitance together with the unit, for example, "220uF". Smaller capacitors like ceramics, however, use a shorthand consisting of three numbers and a letter, where the numbers show the capacitance in pF (calculated as XY × 10Z for the numbers XYZ) and the letter indicates the tolerance (J, K or M for ±5%, ±10% and ±20% respectively). For Example:
A capacitor with the text 473K 330V on its body has a capacitance of 47 × 103 pF = 47 nF (±10%) with a working voltage of 330 V.