Ceramic Capacitor Temperature Ratings

Ceramic capacitors which are usually tiny pancakes with two pins typically list the tolerance value as one letter immediately after the three digit capacitance value.

Ceramic capacitor temperature ratings.

Ceramic disc capacitors have a capacitance value of 10pf to 100μf with a wide variety of voltage ratings between 16 volts to 15 kv and more. The third letter gives the maximum tolerance from that in ppm k. The theoretical range is from 45 c to 200 c. The reality of modern small form factor ceramic capacitors is a good reminder to always read the data sheet.

The letter x as in x7r x5r corresponds to 55 c. A ceramic capacitor is a fixed value capacitor where the ceramic material acts as the dielectric. The first character indicates the lowest temperature that the capacitor can handle. These capacitor characteristics can always be found in the data sheets that the capacitor manufacturer provides to us so here are just a few of the more important ones.

All ratings are from 25 to 85 c. 5 as in x5r corresponds to 85 c and 7 as in x7r corresponds to 125 c. Multi layer ceramic capacitor mlcc. Mlccs are used instead if capacitance values allow.

This tutorial explains how ceramic capacitor type designations such as x7r and y5v imply nothing about voltage coefficients. The second character indicates the maximum temperature. Engineers must check the data to know really know how a specific capacitor will perform under voltage. Ceramic disc capacitors are usually through hole components and are falling out of favor due to their size.

Ceramic names temperature coefficients α α tolerances and letter codes for α.