Siborg System's LCR-Reader-MPA, an all-in-one multimeter. There are three main ways of measuring capacitance: DC charge/discharge, AC response and bridge methods. The first method is only applicable to RC while the latter two to LCR measurements.
When measuring other capacitors the frequency must be chosen lower than desired what means that only the capacitance can be measured. Two examples are given: The first one is for measuring only the capacitance, and the second one is for measuring the capacity as well as the ESR.
The novel results in the field of measurements of very small capacitance changes are presented. The operating principles like double differential principle, RC phase delay, charging and discharging, oscillator, capacitance to phase angle conversion used for measuring very small capacitance changes are discussed.
Several circuit architectures for capacitance measurements have been proposed, where only a few of them consider lossy capacitances , . In the authors classify capacitance measurement circuits to mainly four categories, which are resonance methods, oscillation methods, charge/discharge methods, and AC bridge methods.
The second method describes a measurement that is suitable for measuring on larger capacities and can also determine the internal series resistance (ESR). This method is thus mainly suitable for measuring on electrolytic capacitors. Figure 8 shows the mathematical model with the associated vector diagram in figure 9.
Application Note MPA-CB1 Rev. There are three main ways of measuring capacitance: DC charge/discharge, AC response and bridge methods. The first method is only applicable to RC while the latter two to LCR measurements.