Resistor

Resistors are one of the most common electronic components. A resistor is a device that
limits, or resists current
Resistors are used in a wide variety of applications in all types of electronic circuits. Their
main function in any circuit is to limit the amount of current or to produce a desired drop in voltage.
Resistors are manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes and have ohmic values ranging from a
fraction of an ohm to several megohms. The power or wattage rating of a resistor is determined
mainly by its physical size. There is, however, no direct correlation between the physical size of a
resistor and its resistance value.

Types of Resistors
Wire-Wound Resistors
• In this construction, a special type of wire called resistance wire is
wrapped around an insulating core. The length of wire and its
specific resistivity determine the R of the unit. Types of resistance
wire include tungsten and manganin. Typical fixed and variable
wire-wound resistors are shown in Fig. 2–3.
• Since they are generally used for high-current applications with
low resistance and appreciable power, wire-wound resistors are
available in wattage ratings from 1 W up to 100 W or more. The
resistance can be less than 1 up to several thousand ohms. For 2
W or less, carbon resistors are preferable because they are
generally smaller and cost less.

• In addition, wire-wound resistors are used where accurate, stable

resistance values are necessary. Examples are precision resistors
for the function of an ammeter shunt or a precision potentiometer
to adjust for an exact amount of R.

Carbon-Composition Resistors
• These resistors are made of finely divided carbon or graphite
mixed with a powdered insulating material as a binder in the
proportions needed for the desired R value. As shown in Fig. 2–1
a, the resistor element is enclosed in a plastic case for insulation
and mechanical strength. Joined to the two ends of the carbon
resistance element are metal caps with leads of tinned copper wire
for soldering the connections into a circuit. These are called axial
leads because they come straight out from the ends. Carbon-
composition resistors normally have a brown body and are
cylindrical.
• Carbon-composition resistors are commonly available in R values
of 1 Ω to 20 MΩ. Examples are 10 Ω, 220 Ω, 4.7 kΩ, and 68 kΩ.
The power rating is generally 1⁄10, 1⁄8, 1⁄4, 1⁄2, 1, or 2 W.
 Film-Type Resistors
• There are two kinds of film-type resistors: carbon-film and metal-
film resistors. The carbon-film resistor, whose construction is
shown in Fig. 2–4, is made by depositing a thin layer of carbon
on an insulated substrate. The carbon film is then cut in the form
of a spiral to form the resistive element. The resistance value is
controlled by varying the proportion of carbon to insulator.
Compared to carbon composition resistors, carbon-film resistors
have the following advantages: tighter tolerances, less sensitivity
to temperature changes and aging, and they generate less noise
internally.
• Metal-film resistors are constructed in a manner similar to the
carbon-film type. However, in a metal-film resistor, a thin film of
metal is sprayed onto a ceramic substrate and then cut in the form
of a spiral. The construction of a metal-film resistor is shown in
Fig. 2–5. The length, thickness, and width of the metal spiral
determine the exact resistance value. Metal-film resistors offer
more precise R values than carbon-film resistors. Like carbon-
film resistors, metal-film resistors are affected very little by
temperature changes and aging. They also generate very little
noise internally.

Surface-Mount Resistors
• Surface-mount resistors, also called chip resistors, are
constructed by depositing a thick carbon film on a ceramic
base. The exact resistance value is determined by the
composition of the carbon itself, as well as by the amount of
trimming done to the carbon deposit. The resistance can vary
from a fraction of an ohm to well over a million ohms. Power
dissipation ratings are typically 1⁄8 to ¼ W. Figure 2–6 shows
typical chip resistors.
• Electrical connection to the resistive element is made via two
leadless solder end electrodes (terminals). The end electrodes
are C-shaped. The physical dimensions of a 1⁄8-W chip
resistor is 0.125 in. long by 0.063 in. wide and approximately
0.028 in. thick. This is many times smaller than a conventional
resistor having axial leads. Chip resistors are very
temperature-stable and also very rugged. The end electrodes
are soldered directly to the copper traces of a circuit board,
hence the name surface-mount.
 Fusible Resistors and Thermistors
➢ Fusible Resistors

• This type is a wire-wound resistor made to burn open easily

when the power rating is exceeded. It then serves the dual
functions of a fuse and a resistor to limit the current.
➢ Thermistors
• A thermistor is a thermally sensitive resistor whose resistance
value changes with changes in operating temperature. Because
of the self-heating effect of current in a thermistor, the device
changes resistance with changes in current. Thermistors, which
are essentially semiconductors, exhibit either a positive
temperature coefficient (PTC) or a negative temperature
coefficient (NTC). If a thermistor has a PTC, its resistance
increases as the operating temperature increases. Conversely, if
a thermistor has an NTC, its resistance decreases as its
operating temperature increases. How much the resistance
changes with changes in operating temperature depends on the
size and construction of the thermistor. Note that the resistance
does not undergo instantaneous changes with changes in the
operating temperature. A certain time interval, determined by
the thermal mass (size) of the thermistor, is required for the
resistance change. A thermistor with a small mass will change
more rapidly than one with a large mass. Carbon- and metal-
film resistors are different: their resistance does not change
appreciably with changes in operating temperature.
• Figure 2–7 a shows the standard schematic symbol for a thermistor. Notice the arrow through
the resistor symbol and the letter T within the circle. The arrow indicates that the resistance is
variable as the temperature T changes. As shown in Fig. 2–7 b, thermistors are manufactured
in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. The shapes include beads, rods, disks, and washers.

Resistor Color Coding

Because carbon resistors are small, they are color-coded to mark their R value in ohms. The
basis of this system is the use of colors for numerical values, as listed in Table
2–1. In memorizing the colors, note that the darkest colors, black and brown,
are for the lowest numbers, zero and one, whereas white is for nine. The color
coding is standardized by the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA).
Resistance Color Stripes
The use of colored bands or stripes is the most common system for
color-coding resistors, as shown in Fig. 2–8. The colored bands or stripes
completely encircle the body of the resistor and are usually crowded toward one
end. Reading from left to right, the first band closest to the edge gives the first
digit in the numerical value of R . The next band indicates the second digit. The third band is the
decimal multiplier, which tells us how many zeros to add after the first two digits.
Variable Resistors
• Variable resistors can be wire-wound, as in Fig. 2–3 b, or carbon type,
illustrated in Fig. 2–14. Inside the metal case of Fig. 2–14 a, the
control has a circular disk, shown in Fig. 2–14 b, that is the carbon-
composition resistance element. It can be a thin coating on pressed
paper or a molded carbon disk. Joined to the two ends are the external
soldering-lug terminals 1 and 3. The middle terminal is connected to
the variable arm that contacts the resistor element by a metal spring
wiper. As the shaft of the control is turned, the variable arm moves the
wiper to make contact at different points on the resistor element.
• When the contact moves closer to one end, the R decreases between
this terminal and the variable arm. Between the two ends, however, R
is not variable but always has the maximum resistance of the control.
• Carbon controls are available with a total R from 1000 Ω to 5 MΩ,
approximately. Their power rating is usually 1⁄2 to 2 W.

Rheostats and Potentiometers

Rheostats and potentiometers are variable resistances, either carbon or wire-wound, used to
vary the amount of current or voltage in a circuit. The controls can be used in either dc or ac
applications. A rheostat is a variable R with two terminals connected in series with a load.
The purpose is to vary the amount of current. A potentiometer, generally called a pot for
short, has three terminals. The fixed maximum R across the two ends is connected across a
voltage source. Then the variable arm is used to vary the voltage division between the center
terminal and the ends. This function of a potentiometer is compared with that of a rheostat in
Table 2–2.

Capacitor
A capacitor is a device that stores electrons. The basic capacitor is made up of two conductors
separated by an insulator, or dielectric.
 A. Non-polarized Capacitor - non-polarized capacitor is a type of capacitor that can be
connected any way in a circuit. In other words, there is no positive or negative. Common
types of non-polar capacitors are ceramic, mica and some electrolytic. A capacitor stores
electric charge. A capacitor stores electric charge. A capacitor is used with a resistor in a
timing circuit. It can also be used as a filter, to block DC signals but pass AC signals.
B. Polarized Capacitor - A capacitor stored electric charge. This type must be connected the
correct wat round. A capacitor is used with a resistor in a timing circuit. It can also be used as
a filter, to block DC signals but pass AC signals.
C. Variable Capacitor - A variable capacitor is a capacitor whose capacitance can be varied.
These are usually made up of one or more moving plates and one or more non moving plates
separated by the dielectric. By moving the plates, we can vary the capacitance. A variable
capacitor is used in a radio tuner.
D. Trimmer Capacitor - This type of capacitor (a trimmer) is operated with a small screwdriver
or similar tool. It is designed to be set when the circuit is made and then left without
adjustment.
SELECTING CAPACITORS
There are several factors to consider when selecting a capacitor:
Capacitance: this is obviously the most important factor. Capacitors are made in a standard range of
capacitances.
Tolerance: some applications, such as timing cir cuits, may require a high-precision capacitor. If we
use low-precision types, we must make sure that the circuit will still work if the actual value of the
capacitor is very different from its nominal value.
Working voltage: the capacitor must not break down if the circuit places high voltages across it.
Temperature coefficient: This tells us how much the capacitance varies with temperature. We must
allow for this in a circuit that is intended to operate in extreme conditions. Tempco (as it is often
called) may be expressed as the percentage variation in value over the working range of temperature,
or as the variation in parts per million per degree Celsius.
Polarisation: Some types of capacitors have specified positive and negative terminals. They must not
be used in circuits in which the voltage across them may reverse in polarity.
Leakage current: In some types, leakage may occur through the dielectric. The capacitor may not
hold its charge for long enough.

Commonly used capacitor

• Electrolytic - Made of electrolyte, basically conductive salt in solvent. Aluminum electrodes
are used by using a oxidation membrane.
• Aluminium electrolytic - These are made by rolling two strips of aluminium foil with a strip
of absorbent paper between them. This is soaked in an electrolyte solution, and the assembly
is sealed in a can. A voltage is applied between the two plates, causing a very thin layer of
aluminium oxide to be deposited on one plate. The oxide is an insulator and acts as the
dielectric. On one side it is in contact with the aluminium foil on which it was formed. On the
other side it is in contact with the electrolyte.
• Polyester - Metal foil plates with polyester film between them, or a metallized film is
deposited on the insulator. This makes a long narrow ‘sandwich’ that is rolled to make it more
compact and is then coated with plastic to insulate it.
• Polystyrene - These have a similar structure to polyester capacitors but the dielectric is
polystyrene. They are made only in low values, usually 10 pF to 47 nF. Typically, their
tolerance is 5% or 10% but high precision types are available with a tolerances of 1% and 2%.
Working voltages are 30 V to 630 V. The precision types are suitable for tuning and filter
circuits.
• Metalized Polyesterene Film - Dielectric made of Metal-Oxide. Good quality, low drift,
temperature stable. Because the electrodes are thin, they can be made very small. Good all-
around capacitor.
• Polycarbonate - These cover the range 100 pF to 10 μF, and have working voltages up to 400
V DC. Their tolerance is 5% or 10%. Tempcos are about 100 ppm/ C, and are fairly constant
over the operating range of 55 C to 100 C. This makes them preferred to polyester capacitors
for filtering and timing circuits.
• Polypropylene - Mainly used when a higher tolerance is needed then polyester caps can
offer. This polypropylene film is the dielectric. very little chance in capacitance when these
capacitors are used in applications within frequency range 100KHz. Tolerance is about 1%.
Very small values are available.
• Epoxy - Manufactured using epoxy-based polymers as dielectric. Widely available, stable,
cheap. Can be quite large depending on capacity or rated voltage and so may not be suitable
for all applications.
• Ceramic - Constructed with materials such as titanium acid barium for dielectric. Internally
these capacitors are not constructed as a coil, so they are well suited for use in high frequency
applications.
• Multi-layer ceramic - A number of plates are stacked with a film of dielectric between them
and alternate plates connected to the same terminal. They are sometimes described as
‘monolithic’ because the assembly is then fused into a block and coated with resin. The
capacitors are made in a range from 1 pF to 1 μF and with tolerances from 2% to 20%
(though as wide as 220% and 180% for one type).
• Ceramic disc - These are single-layer ceramic capacitors with high capacitance for their size.
They are made in the range 1 pF to 220 nF, with working voltage usually 50 V, and a wide
range of tolerances. They are widely used for many purposes, including decoupling.
• Tantalum - made of Tantalum Petoxide. They are electrolytic capacitors but used with a
material called tantalum for the electrodes. Superior to electrolytic capacitors, excellent
temperature and frequency characteristics.
• Tuning or 'Air-Core' Capacitors - They use the surrounding air as a dielectric. Mostly used
in radio and radar equipment. This type usually has more (air) capacitors combined (ganged)
and so when the adjustment axel is turned, the capacitance of all of them changes
simultaneously.
CAPACITOR APPLICATION
1. Blocking
2. Coupling and Decoupling
3. Bypassing
4. Frequency Discrimination
5. Timing
6. Transient Voltage Suppression
7. Energy Storage
8. Arc Suppression
9. Power Factor Correction

CAPACITOR TROUBLES
Capacitors also displays open and short characteristics. The procedure in checking this
trouble is the same as that in other components or devices. However, since capacitors can store
electrical energy, it is possible that leakage may occur during its operation.

Inductors
When a current is passed through a coil of wire, a magnetic field is generated. This is
the principle on which solenoids, electric motors and loudspeakers work. The converse happens too.
When there is a change in the magnetic field through a coil, an emf is generated in the coil. This
causes current to flow through the coil. This is known as electromagnetic induction.

Inductor types based on core

Air Core Inductor

Ceramic core inductors are referred as “Air core inductors”. Ceramic is
the most commonly used material for inductor cores. Ceramic has very low
thermal co-efficient of expansion, so even for a range of operating temperatures
the stability of the inductor’s inductance is high. Since ceramic has no magnetic
properties, there is no increase in the permeability value due to the core material.
Its main aim is to give a form for the coil. In some cases it will also provide the
structure to hold the terminals in place. The main advantage of these inductors are
very low core losses, high Quality factor. These are mainly used in high frequency
applications where low inductance values are required.

Iron Core Inductor

In the areas where low space inductors are in need then these iron core
inductors are best option. These inductors have high power and high inductance
value but limited in high frequency capacity. These are applicable in audio
equipment. When compared with other core indictors these have very limited
applications.

Ferrite Core Inductor

Ferrite is also referred as ferromagnetic material. They exhibit magnetic
properties. They consist of mixed metal oxide of iron and other elements to form
crystalline structures . The general composition of ferrites is XFe2O4. Where X
represents transition materials. Mostly easily magnetized material combinations are
used such as manganese and zinc (MnZn), nickel and zinc (niZn).
 Ferrites are mainly two types they are soft ferrites and hard ferrites. These are classified
according to the magnetic coercivity. Coercivity is the magnetic field intensity needed to demagnetize
the ferromagnetic material from complete saturation state to zero.
Soft Ferrite
These materials will have the ability to reverse their polarity of their magnetization
without any particular amount of energy needed to reverse the magnetic polarity.
Hard Ferrite
These are also called as permanent magnets. These will keep the polarity of the
magnetization even after removing the magnetic field.
Ferrite core inductor will help to improve the performance of the inductor by
increasing the permeability of the coil which leads to increase the value of the inductance.
The level of the permeability of the ferrite core used within the inductors will depend on the
ferrite material. This permeability level ranges from 20 to 15,000 according to the material of
ferrite. Thus, the inductance is very high with ferrite core when compared to the inductor with
air core.

Iron Powder Inductor

These are formed from very fine particles with insulated particles of highly
pure iron powder. This type of inductor contains nearly 100% iron only. It
gives us a solid looking core when this iron power is compressed under very
high pressure and mixed with a binder such as epoxy or phenolic. By this
action iron powder forms like a magnetic solid structure which consists of
distributed air gap.
Due to this air gap it is capable to store high magnetic flux when compared
with the ferrite core. This characteristic allows a higher DC current level to
flow through the inductor before inductor saturates. This leads to reduce the
permeability of the core.
Mostly the initial permeability’s are below 100 only. Thus, these inductors
posses with high temperature co-efficient stability. These are mainly applicable in switching power
supplies.

Laminated Core Inductor

These core materials are formed by arranging many numbers of
laminations on top of each other. These laminations may be made up of
different materials and with different thicknesses. So, this construction has
more flexibility. These laminations are made up of steel with insulating
material between them.
These are arranged parallel to the field to avoid eddy current losses
between the laminations. These are used in low frequency detectors. They have
high power levels so; they are mostly used at power filtering devices for
excitation frequencies above several KHz.

Bobbin Based Inductor

These are wounded on cylindrical bobbin so these are named as
bobbin-based inductors. These are mainly used for mounting on printed
circuit boards.
It consist of two types of leads they are axial lead and radial lead.
Axial lead means lead exits from both sides of the core for horizontal
mounting on PC board. Radial lead means lead exits from both sides of the
core for vertical mounting on PC board.
 Toroidal Inductor
Wire wounded on core which has ring or donut shaped surface. These
are generally made up of different materials like ferrite, powdered iron and tape
wound etc. This inductor has high coupling results between winding and early
saturation.
Its arrangement gives minimum loss in magnetic flux which helps to
avoid coupling magnetic flux with other devices. It has high energy transferring
efficiency and high inductance values at low frequency applications. These
inductors mainly used in medical devices, switching regulators, air conditioners,
refrigerators, telecommunications and musical instruments etc.

Multi-layer Ceramic Inductors

The name itself indicates that it consists of multi layers. Simply by adding
additional layers of coiled wire that is wound around the central core to the inductor
gives multi-layer inductor. Generally, for a greater number of turns in a wire, the
inductance is also more.
In these multi-layer inductors not only the inductance of the inductor
increases but also the capacitance between the wires also increases. The most
advantage of these inductors is by giving the lower operating frequencies also we
can get higher inductance results.
These are having applications at high frequencies to suppress noise, in
signal processing modules like wireless LANs, Bluetooth etc. These are also used at
mobile communication systems.

Film Inductor
These uses a film of conductor on base material. Thus, according to the
requirement this film is shaped for conductor application. Film inductors in thin size
are suitable for DC to DC converters that serve as power supplies in smart phones and
mobile devices. The Rf thin film inductor is shown on the right:

Variable Inductor
It is formed by moving the magnetic core in and outside of the inductor
windings. By this magnetic core we can adjust the inductance value. When we consider
a ferrite core inductor, by moving its core inside and outside on which the coil is
wounded, variable ferrite core inductor can be formed.
These types of inductors are used in radio and high frequency applications
where the tuning is required. These inductors are typically ranged from 10 μH to 100
μH and in present days these are ranged from 10nH to 100 mH.

Coupled Inductors
The two conductors connected by electromagnetic induction are
generally referred as coupled inductors. We already seen that whenever the AC
current is flowing in one inductor produces voltage in second inductor gives us
mutual inductance phenomenon.
Coupled inductors will work on this phenomenon only. These can
isolate two circuits electrically by transferring impedance through the circuit. A
transformer is one of the type of coupled inductor.
 Molded inductors
These inductors or molded by plastic or ceramic insulators. These are
typically available in bar and cylindrical shapes with wide option of windings.