Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Capacitance Measurement
Ashish Saurabh1 *
Abstract
There are many different types of capacitors with many different parameters; each is suited to a range of
applications. As operational frequency requirements increase, electronic systems downsize and power usage
becomes more critical, the most important parameters are quality factor (Q) and equivalent series resistance
(ESR). Measurement and characterization of multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) for these parameters is
demanding, and with limited standardization of test methods, comparison of ranges or competitors is diffi-
cult.Vector network analyzer (VNA) is versatile measuring equipment which is primarily used for two-port device
S parameters measurements. This literature review addresses measurement of capacitor parameters using VNA
in broad frequency range. The main attention is focused on the measurement accuracy of capacitors parameters
using VNA and proper de-embedding of an experimental setup parasitics to get accurate results. Comparative
measurement error analysis for different measurement techniques is presented. Suitability of each measurement
technique for measurements of capacitor parameters using VNA is discussed and effect of the experimental
setup parasitics on the measurement results is addressed
Keywords
Capacitors— VNA — MLCC—Measurement—Measurement accuracy
1 DPGLIGHT Concept and Feasibility Team, Lam research India Pvt. Ltd.
*Correspondence: ashish.saurabh@lamresearch.com
4. Challenges[16]
Figure 7. Shunt-through[14]
Major challenges to make accurate measurement are:-
Figure 9. Calculated relative measurement errors of 100nF capacitor | Zc | (a) and ESR (b) versus frequency for all the three
measurement techniques.[14]
Figure 10. Calculated relative measurement errors of 1nF capacitor | Zc | (a) and ESR (b) versus frequency for all the three
measurement techniques.[14]
using proper measurement technique. Its is also evident that [6] D. Mariolo, E. Sardani, and A. Taroni, “Measurement of
an accurate result is highly dependent on the magnitude of small capacitance variation,” IEEE Tran. Instrumentation
the capacitance and method adopted for the measurements. and Measurement, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 426-428, April 1991.
It can be concluded that VNA can substitute more expensive [7] D. M. G. Preethichandra and K. Shida, “A simple inter-
Impedance analyzers for accurate Capacitance measurements face circuit to measure very small capacitance changes
in broad frequency range with some limitations in terms of in capacitance sensors,” IEEE Tran. Instrumentation and
ESR measurements. But for holistic and accurate measure- Measurement, vol. 50, no. 6, pp. 1583-1586, December
ments Impedance measurement is more suitable since it pro- 2001.
vides more information about the Electrical equivalence of a
[8] S. M. Huang, A. L. Stott, R. G. Green and M. S. Beck,
Capacitor.
“Electronic transducers for industrial measurement of low
value capacitances,” Journal of Physics E: Sci. and In-
References strum., vol. 21, pp. 242-250, 1988.
[1] M. Yamada, T. Takebayashi, S. Notoyama, and K. Watan- [9] R. Dosoudil, Determination of permeability from
abe, “A switched-capacitor interface for capacitive pres- ”
impedance measurement using vector network analyzer,”
sure transducer,”, ,IEEE Tran. Instrumentation and Mea- Journal of electrical engineering, vol. 63, No.7, pp. 97-101,
surement, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 81-86, February 1992. Oct. 2012
[2] F. N. Toth and G. C. M. Meijer, “A low-cost, smart ca- [10] Satish Prabhakaran, Charles Sullivan, ”Impedance-
pacitive position sensor,” IEEE Tran. Instrumentation and analyzer measurements of high-frequency power passives:
Measurement, vol. 41, no. 6, pp. 1041-1044, December Techniques for high power and low impedance,” In proc.
1992. IEEE Industry Applications Conference, Pittsburgh, PA,
[3] Y. C. Chung, N. N. Amarnath, and C. M. Furse, “Ca- USA, 2002, pp. 1360 – 1367.
pacitance and inductance sensor circuits for detecting the [11] William B. Kuhn, Adam P. Boutz, ”Measuring and report-
lengths of open- and shortcircuited wires,” IEEE Tran. In-
ing high quality factors of inductors using vector network
strumentation and Measurement, vol. 58, no. 8, pp. 2495-
analyzers,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and
2502, August 2009.
Techniques, vol.58, No.4, pp. 1046-1055, Apr. 2010
[4] J. C. Lotters, W. Olthuis, and P. Bergveld, “A sensitive
Ad
differential capacitance to voltage converter for sensor ap-
[12] vanced Impedance Measurement Capability of the RF
plications,” IEEE Tran. Instrumentation and Measurement,
vol. 48, no. 1, pp. 89-96, February 1999. I-V Method Compared to the Network Analysis Method.
[5] A. L. Hugill, “Displacement transducers based on reactive Agilent Application Note No. 1369-2.
sensors in transformer ratio bridge circuits,” Journal of [13] Ultra Low Impedance Measurements Using 2-Port Mea-
Physics E: Sci. Instrm. vol. 15, pp. 597-606, 1982. surements. Agilent Application Note, 2004.
Capacitance Measurement — 7/7