Ceramic Disc Capacitor Markings

A guide to understanding ceramic disc capacitor values.

Ceramic disc capacitor markings.

The above image shows a pair of ceramic disk capacitors labeled only as 10 and 15 these capacitors and all those under 1000pf directly show their capacitance in picofarads. The first two significant digits represent the first two digits of the actual value which is 47. There is no negative indicator as this capacitor doesn t have a dedicated polarity and can be installed either way. The third digit is the multiplier which is 1000.

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 capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. Two of the most common are shown here. They are very easy to decode to find the value.

A variety of schemes may be used. This indicates a 22µf capacitor with a maximum voltage of 6v. The first is used with small ceramic capacitors and appears as a single letter. 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.

Ceramic capacitors are generally smaller than types like electrolytic capacitors and therefore the markings need to be more concise. When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads. There are several tolerance marking systems used. 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 two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier.