If you, like us, thought that capacitor orientation only matters for polarized varieties like electrolytic capacitors you should read through this article. [Bruce Trump] looks at why some film capacitors have a stripe printed on one end and why their orientation can matter.
He has an image rolled into his post showing both axial and dipped capacitors with a black stripe printed on one end of the package. This is an indicator of what is going on inside of the component. The end with the line has a conductive foil layer which acts as a shield. But it seems that this shield will do its job better if you do a better job of designing for the capacitor.
The diagram above shows two op-amp circuits, both using a non-polarized capacitor that will affect the circuit if it receives external interference. [Bruce] discusses various aspects of this phenomenon, mentioning that although these careful layouts can be tested in your designs to prove which has more benefits, simulated applications (using SPICE) will perform exactly the same.
That cap is “not polarized” in the same way most mosfets aren’t polarized. I.e. it is polarized…
Informative posts like this are one of the reasons I frequent Hackaday.
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I never thought about it, but it makes complete sense. You’d want the outer layer to go to the low(er) impedance node.
Agreed! Interesting article :)
The same sometimes is an issue with unshielded inductors: if you can hook it up so the outermost coils go to ground, rather than to a wildly switching node, you can often quiet a layout.
This actually makes a lot of sense, I’m going to try and use this advice in my next SMPS!
I did know this, but never thought about why it was important. Good info to have!
This is old hat. In the tube days in a rats nest of a chassis, this mattered. Sometimes it would carry the label “outside foil” at one end. It’s not a shield, just the lesser of two evils.
Even in solid state audio often times the orientation of some non-polarized caps will make a slight, but audible, difference (assuming the rest of the circuit is fully optimized. sometimes it’s the littlest things that can make the noticeable changes!
https://xkcd.com/859/