Monday 13 February 2012

Electrolytic capacitor

Today electrolytic capacitors or as they are more correctly termed, aluminium electrolytic capacitors are used in huge quantities. They are very cost effective and able to provide a larger capacitance per volume than other types of capacitor. This gives them very many uses in circuits where high currents or low frequencies are involved. Aluminium electrolytic capacitors are typically used most in applications such as audio amplifiers of all types (hi-fi to mobile phones) and in power supply circuits.
Like any other capacitor, it is necessary to understand the advantages and limitations of these capacitors to enable them to be used most effectively.

Electrolytic capacitor development

The electrolytic capacitor has been in use for many years. Its history can be traced back to the very early days or radio around the time when the first broadcasts of entertainment were being made. At the time, valve wireless sets were very expensive, and they had to run from batteries. However with the development of the indirectly heated valve or vacuum tube it became possible to use AC mains power. While it was fine for the heaters to run from an AC supply, the anode supply needed to be rectified and smoothed to prevent mains hum appearing on the audio. In order to be able to use a capacitor that was not too large Julius Lilienfield who was heavily involved in developing wireless sets for domestic use was able to develop the electrolytic capacitor, allowing a component with sufficiently high capacitance but reasonable size to be used in the wireless sets of the day.



For more details please click : Electrolytic capacitor

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