Owner manual

Atlas ESR User Guide February 2008 – Rev 4
Page 5
Notes on ESR
ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance),
as it’s acronym implies, is the value
of resistance that is effectively in
series with an ideal capacitor.
No capacitor is ideal of course, the detailed equivalent circuit of a typical
capacitor is very complex. For many electrolytic capacitors however, the most
important parameters regarding the capacitor’s performance is the capacitance
and the ESR.
An increase in ESR (due to age, abuse or temperature cycling) can result in
poor capacitor performance. The capacitor becomes less “ideal” and starts to
dissipate more power, an ideal capacitor of course dissipates zero power.
Capacitor manufacturers typically quote the ESR of their products at 100kHz,
which is the same test frequency used by the Atlas ESR.
ESR
C