Ceramic Vs Electrolytic Capacitors

Tantalum ceramic capacitors.

Ceramic vs electrolytic capacitors.

Tantalum capacitors have superior frequency characteristics and long term stability. The basic electrolytic capacitor is aluminum oxide and it looks like a cylinder with two legs. An electrolytic capacitor contains two conductive plates an insulating layer and an electrolyte liquid such as boric acid. In this post we compare tantalum capacitor vs ceramic the differences between and benefits of the two.

The main difference between ceramic and electrolytic capacitor is that in ceramic capacitors the two conductive plates are separated by a ceramic material whereas in electrolytic capacitors the two conductive plates are separated by an electrolyte and a metal oxide layer. We will describe each briefly below. The ceramic capacitor uses a thin ceramic layer as the dielectric medium whereas the electrolytic capacitor uses an ionic liquid as one of the sheets of the capacitor. Mainly we are using ceramic and electrolytic capacitors in our circuits but most of us don t know about the difference between them.

Ceramic and electrolytic capacitors are two types of capacitors used in electronic circuits. Electrolytic capacitors are polarised giving a danger of damage or even explosion if subjected to high reversed polarity pulses or if they are mounted incorrectly. Electrolytic ceramic silver mica mylar monolithic tantalum glass or supercapacitors just to name a few. One of the most common passive component questions we hear is what are the differences between the wide varieties of capacitors when your schematic calls for a capacitor you have many choices.

A non polar capacitor film and ceramic can be operated with both dc and ac voltage while a polar capacitor electrolytic and super can be operated with dc voltage only. The three main types of capacitors with fixed capacitance are film ceramic and electrolytic. The permissible reverse voltage on these electrolytics is 15 of the nominal at room temperature 5 at 85 c and only 1 at 125 c. By robert cong what s the difference between capacitors.

Tantalum capacitors are a subtype of electrolytic capacitors that use tantalum metal for the anode. Ceramic capacitors are best for high frequency and large value electrolytic capacitors are good for low frequency. Because of the chemical construction one plate becomes the anode or positive and one plate becomes the cathode or negative.