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Measuring ESR

someonesdad1@gmail.com 11 Nov 2010 Capacitors are often modeled as a pure capacitance in series with a resistance1. This series resistance is called ESR for e!uivalent series resistance . This "ecomes an important measure for e.g. large electrol#tic capacitors used for filtering dut# in power supplies $$ the ESR dissipates power. %epending on the capacitor&s value' #ou t#picall# want to see the ESR of a capacitor well "elow 1 ' prefera"l# in the m region' at least for the "ig filter caps. (s capacitors age' the ESR often goes up' increasing the operating temperature of the capacitor and increasing the rate of degradation. )hen fi*ing "ro+en older electronic e!uipment' e*perienced trou"leshooters will often chec+ the capacitors first' as the# are a common failure mode ,"esides "eing eas# to replace-. ( good test is to use a meter that measures ESR and loo+ for an ESR value that is too high. (n advantage is that the capacitor&s ESR can "e tested in$circuit. Commercial meters that measure ESR can "e e*pensive if #ou don&t use them ver# often. .our digital multimeter is useless "ecause that capacitance will "loc+ %C if #ou tr# to measure the %C resistance. /t turns out there&s a techni!ue of appro*imatel# measuring ESR that can "e done with an (C signal source and an instrument to measure (C amplitude' usuall# a scope or an (C voltmeter. 0or power suppl# electrol#tics' the fre!uenc# of interest is dou"le the line fre!uenc#. To chec+ a capacitor&s ESR' here&s the "asic test circuit21

2 can "e supplied "# a function generator or #ou can ma+e #our own oscillator. ( filament transformer could "e used if #ou&re going to "e testing power suppl# caps. 2o is the voltage to measure when the capacitor to "e measured is put in the circuit. 3se a scope if #ou have it or #our %44. 4a+e sure 2&s fre!uenc# is within the "andwidth of #our %44. ( meter li+e the 56 7800 R4S voltmeter is nearl# ideal for these t#pes of measurements "ecause it will measure the response from 10 59 to 10 459 or more ,and it&s (C$coupled' so it will ignore an# %C voltages on the capacitor-. R1 and R2 ma+e up a voltage divider. )hen the capacitor in the dashed "o* ,the series e!uivalent circuit of a capacitor- is connected to the circuit' the capacitor shorts out the voltage across R2. The lower the ESR of the capacitor' the lower the measured voltage 2o will "e. 6ractical test circuits often use pro"es connected to where the capacitor connects to allow #ou to pro"e capacitors in$circuit. 5ere&s the measurement procedure. )ith no capacitor connected' measure 2o: call this
1 This is a model' not an e*act representation of a real capacitor. ;ther effects li+e inductance "ecome important as the fre!uenc# increases. 2 Commercial testers pro"a"l# use other circuits such as the )heatstone "ridge or its generali9ations.

measurement 21. Connect the capacitor and measure 2o again: call the measurement 22. .ou then estimate the capacitor&s ESR value from the ratio 22<21. Cali"rate the measuring tool with some resistors "etween 0.1 and 100 . 6lot the resistance value versus the ratio 22<21 and #ou can use the graph to read off a capacitor&s estimated ESR value. Remem"er that this is a rough and comparative measurement' so measurement accurac# isn&t terri"l# important. /f #ou&ll "e ma+ing these measurements fre!uentl#' #ou might want to pac+age things together in a "o* for convenience. / recommend #ou search the we" ,use ESR tester or something similar- and #ou&ll get a num"er of pages showing various circuits and techni!ues. Two cautions are in order when using this test method. 0irst' alwa#s ma+e sure the capacitor is discharged "efore measuring its ESR ,"e careful of polari9ation effects too if appropriate-. Second' a shorted capacitor will appear to "e a good capacitor with this test. /f #ou measure a ver# low ESR for a capacitor' #ou need to ma+e sure it isn&t a shorted capacitor. Chec+ its capacitance with #our %44 if it can measure capacitance. ;therwise' #ou can tr# measuring the %C resistance. The pro"lem with this resistance measurement is that a "ig discharged capacitor will loo+ li+e a dead short to #our resistance measurement $$ and #our %44 doesn&t suppl# enough current to charge the capacitor to the point that the current will drop and the measured resistance will go up. Thus' if #ou still suspect the capacitor is shorted' #ou might have to remove it from the circuit and see if #ou can charge it up with a %C voltage from a power suppl#. .ou can also use #our %44 to chec+ the %C resistance of a capacitor to loo+ for a lea+# capacitor. .ou&ll pro"a"l# want to isolate the capacitor from the circuit for this test. Some lin+s to chec+1 http1<<mem"ers.shaw.ca<swstuff<esrmeter.html http1<<octopus.free#ellow.com<==.html ,ine*pensive 100 +59 ESR circuit using a 80>= he* inverterhttp1<<www.anate+corp.com<teste!uipment<esrcompar.htm

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