Ceramic Disc Capacitor Markings

Two of the most common are shown here.

Ceramic disc capacitor markings.

A variety of schemes may be used. They are very easy to decode to find the value. There is no negative indicator as this capacitor doesn t have a dedicated polarity and can be installed either way. Capacitor tolerance markings in addition to the capacitance value and possibly the working voltage or breakdown voltage the capacitor may be marked by its tolerance.

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. There are several tolerance marking systems used. The third digit is the multiplier which is 1000. 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.

The first two numbers describe the value of the capacitor and the third number is the number of zeros in the multiplier. Typically the markings on a capacitor may give the figures like 22 and 6v. The first two significant digits represent the first two digits of the actual value which is 47. 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.

When the first two numbers are multiplied with the multiplier the resulting value is the value of the capacitor in picofarads. Ceramic disc capacitors markings are a two or three digit value this tutorial explains how use the code to determine the capacitance in farads. This indicates a 22µf capacitor with a maximum voltage of 6v. Ceramic disc capacitors have two to three digits code printed on them.

Ceramic disc capacitor code label will normally consist of three numbers followed by a letter.