• Ceramic Capacitor Markings Ceramic capacitors, known for their small size, use concise markings with digits and letters to indicate capacitance values. These codes convey information in minimal space, often including a base capacitance value followed by a letter for tolerance or temperature coefficient.
Read the tolerance code on ceramic capacitors. 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.
• Ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them. • The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier. • When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier, the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads.
The markings on the capacitors can also be done by printing it on the capacitor. This is true for capacitors which provide enough space for marking to be printed and include film capacitors, disc ceramics, and electrolytic capacitors.
The following capacitor value calculator calculates the values of capacitance for ceramic capacitors. Just put the capacitor code marking such as “103” and click on calculate. The result will show the value of capacitance of ceramic capacitor in μF (microfarad = 1×10-6), nF (nano-farad = 1×10-9) or pF (picofarad = 1×10-12).
The value of ceramic disk capacitors lower than 1000pf is printed on it in the form of digits and numbers. For example, the only number “300” is printed on a capacitor of 300pf. Those capacitors having capacitance of 1000pf or more, their values can be read by the 3 digits numbers (e.g. 102. 103, 105 etc.) printed on it.