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E5D08

ELECTRICAL PRINCIPLES · RF effects in components and circuits: skin effect; real and reactive power; electrical length of conductors

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What is the primary cause of loss in film capacitors at RF?

  1. AInductance
  2. BDielectric loss
  3. CSelf-discharge
  4. DSkin effect
Why Film capacitors use low-loss plastic dielectrics (polypropylene, polyester, polystyrene) whose loss tangent stays very small well into the RF range, so the dielectric is not what limits them. What does degrade is the metal: the thin foil or metallized electrodes and the leads carry current only in a shallow outer layer as frequency rises, because skin depth falls off as 1/sqrt(f). That crowding raises the effective series resistance, and the I-squared-R heating in the electrodes and leads becomes the dominant loss mechanism.
Watch out Dielectric loss is the tempting pick because it dominates in many other capacitor types, but the plastic films used here have exceptionally low loss tangents, leaving conductor resistance as the main culprit.
Film dielectric = low loss; the metal is the problem. Skin effect raises ESR as sqrt(f).
HamSandwich explanation, first draft. The question and answers are the NCVEC text.
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The rest of E5D

  1. E5D01 What is the result of conductor skin effect?
  2. E5D02 Why is it important to keep lead lengths short for components used in circuits for VHF and above?
  3. E5D03 What is the phase relationship between current and voltage for reactive power?
  4. E5D04 Why are short connections used at microwave frequencies?
  5. E5D05 What parasitic characteristic causes electrolytic capacitors to be unsuitable for use at RF?
  6. E5D06 What parasitic characteristic creates an inductor's self-resonance?
  7. E5D07 What combines to create the self-resonance of a component?
  8. E5D08 What is the primary cause of loss in film capacitors at RF?
  9. E5D09 What happens to reactive power in ideal inductors and capacitors?
  10. E5D10 As a conductor's diameter increases, what is the effect on its electrical length?
  11. E5D11 How much real power is consumed in a circuit consisting of a 100-ohm resistor in series with a 100-ohm induct…
  12. E5D12 What is reactive power?
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