[sdiy] Typical ESR of different capacitors

[Harry Bissell]

take a look at low-esr.com for some info...
(I took a brief look, maybe some good stuff there...)

H^) harry


----- Original Message -----
From: Antti Huovilainen <antti.huovilainen at iki.fi>
To: Harry Bissell <harrybissell at wowway.com>
Cc: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Sent: Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:59:29 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Typical ESR of different capacitors

On Wed, 1 Sep 2010, Harry Bissell wrote:

> You could safely say that the electrolytic would have the highest ESR, the
> tantalum next, and the ceramic is ~probably~ the lowest.

Yes, but what are the ballpark figures? If a design requires max 1 ohm 
ESR, am I safe using a random tantalum for example?

Knowing the relative order of caps isn't much use when a blind guess could 
easily be an order of magnitude wrong in either direction (some LDO 
regulators also require high enough ESR to avoid instability).

On a related note, how does dissipation factor tie into ESR? Is it an 
entirely separate mechanism or can I deduce the approximate ESR of a cap 
from the DF (within caps of the same type obviously)?

Antti

"No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow"
   -- Lt. Cmdr. Ivanova

-- 
Harry Bissell & Nora Abdullah 4eva