How to calculate value of ceramic capacitors

As an electronics engineer/hobbyist we need to calculate values of capacitors many times.In electrolytic capacitors we do not have to do much as the value is written clearly  on the package but when we move to the ceramic capacitors we get confuse many times about how to calculate the value because values are written as a code like 102k,104k.106k etc.To ease this calculation I am going to share process to“How to calculate value of ceramic capacitors”.

In the picture,numbers printed on the capacitor are specified clearly as first two numbers represent digits and third number represents multiplier and fourth digit represents tolerance.In short you can just remember it as DDMT(Digit-Digit-Multiplier-Tolerance)

Now its time to determine the value    

                                       

first of all write digits                 :  10

then multiply it by multiplier   :  10×10⁴=10×10000=100000pF

K  represents tolerance             :  ±10%

Now our calculation is done and we got                                                          

 104K=100000pF=100nF=0.1 µF with ±10% tolerance        

Always remember that you always get obtained values in Picofarads(pF) then you can convert it to your choice in Microfarads(µF) and Nanaofarads(nF) etc.

If you need to verify the manually calculated value or if you want to calculate it online then you can use online capacitor calculator at http://www.muzique.com/schem/caps.htm

For your ease multiplier table and tolerance table is provided below

Multiplier Table
Number	Multiply by
0	100=1
1	101=10
2	102=100
3	103=1000
4	104=10000
5	105=100000
6	106=1000000

Tolerance Table
Code	Tolerance
C	±0.25pF
D	±0.5pF
F	±1%
G	±2%
J	±5%
K	±10%
M	±20%
Z	+80%/-20%

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Written by Md Khalid Hasan

We are Electronics Engineers and we are here to guide ECE students.