Capacitors behave differently than resistors, where resistors allow a flow of electrons through them directly proportional to the voltage drop, and capacitors oppose changes in voltage by drawing or ...

This tutorial will showcase how inductance, capacitance and resistance affect alternating current. A circuit may have the alternating current through it and the voltage across it rising and failing ...

Last month's column explained that AC current flowing through an inductance reaches its peak amplitude after the voltage. Lagging current is characteristic of an inductive circuit. Capacitive circuits ...

Out of all of the fundamental passive electronic components, capacitors are arguably the most abundantly used. In fact, it is hard to find a circuit board that does not have a capacitor on it and a ...

According to the IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronic Terms, power factor (PF) is defined as the ratio of the circuit power (watts) to the circuit volt-amperes. This is described by ...

The four basic capacitor types. The key parameters involved in selecting the right capacitor for automotive designs. Advantages and limitations of electrolytic and electrostatic capacitors. Choosing a ...

Electrochemical capacitors, also called supercapacitors, store energy using either ion adsorption (electrochemical double layer capacitors) or fast surface redox reactions (pseudo-capacitors). They ...

The pioneering years in the history of capacitors was a time when capacitors were used primarily for gaining an early understanding of electricity, predating the discovery even of the electron. It was ...

Variable capacitors may be useful, but the air gap that provides their capacitance is their greatest weakness. Rather than deal with the poor dielectric properties of air, some high-end variable ...