ESR Meter Recommendations

W2HX w2hx at w2hx.com
Wed Sep 30 13:24:02 CDT 2015


Essentially these are two different measurements meant to measure a different property of the capacitor. Capacitors have many properties, many we know such as capacitance, working voltage, temp coefficient, etc. Add to that list both leakage current (parallel resistance) and ESR (series resistance). They tell you different things about the capacitor's behavior.

Hope this helps.
Regards
Eugene

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Noel Chiappa
Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2015 12:49 PM
To: cctalk at classiccmp.org
Cc: jnc at mercury.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: ESR Meter Recommendations

    From: Eugene (W2HX)

    > to model this using ideal components, we show a resistor in parallel to
    > the capacitor ... This modeled parallel resistor represents the leakage
    > current.
    > ...
    > because it is not ideal, some power is dissipated. This dissipated
    > power is represented by a series resistance. Because an idealized
    > circuit with a cap and a resistor in series will not pass DC current,
    > this circuit must be tested at AC.

So I'm slightly confused; you talk about the model being a parallel resistor (which I get), but then switch to a series resistor. Why the switch?

	Noel


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