Ceramic Disc Capacitor Markings

Ceramic disc capacitors markings are a two or three digit value this tutorial explains how use the code to determine the capacitance in farads.

Ceramic disc capacitor markings.

A guide to understanding ceramic disc capacitor values. This letter represents the tolerance of the capacitor meaning how close the actual value of the capacitor can be expected to be to the indicated value of the capacitor. Typically the markings on a capacitor may give the figures like 22 and 6v. Ceramic capacitors are generally smaller than types like electrolytic capacitors and therefore the markings need to be more concise.

There are several tolerance marking systems used. Ceramic disc capacitor code label will normally consist of three numbers followed by a letter. 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. The first is used with small ceramic capacitors and appears as a single letter.

Ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. A variety of schemes may be used. The first two significant digits represent the first two digits of the actual value which is 47. The third digit is the multiplier which is 1000.

They are very easy to decode to find the value. This indicates a 22µf capacitor with a maximum voltage of 6v. When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads. Two of the most common are shown here.

The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier.