Capacitors

Capacitors are passive electronic components that store energy in the form of an electrostatic field. In their simplest form, capacitors consist of two conducting plates separated by an insulating material called the dielectric. The capacitance is directly proportional to the surface areas of the plates, and is inversely proportional to the separation between the plates. Capacitance also depends on the dielectric constant of the substance separating the plates. The standard unit of capacitance is the farad, abbreviated F. This is a large unit; more common units are the microfarad, abbreviated μF (1 μF = 10^-6 F) and the Pico farad, abbreviated pF (1 pF = 10^-12 F).