Four Terminal-Pair Measurements of Ceramic Capacitors

Expanding on our previous work on four terminal-pair air capacitors, we present a model for the frequency-dependent capacitance of ceramic capacitors for values ranging from 10 nF to 10μF. Two measurements are necessary to completely model the frequency dependence of the capacitance. First, the location of the pole in the admittance in the frequency range from 100 kHz to 20 MHz. This measurement is obtained with a vector network analyzer. Second, the dissipation factor at 1 kHz can be measured with a capacitance bridge. From these two measurements, the relative change in frequency for frequencies ranging from 100 Hz to 100 kHz can be constructed.