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Electrolytic Cap's Leakage & Voltage Division

I recently read that the leakage current in an aluminum electrolytic capacitor will increase with higher applied voltge. This seems reasonable. In fact, I have a vague memory of having measured leakage current and finding that it rises sharply as the applied voltage nears the rated voltage.

But I also remember reading that when connecting electrolytics in series, there is a danger of unequal voltage division which might overstress one of the caps.

This seems to present a contradiction. If one capacitor takes more than its fair share of the voltage, wouldn't that cause an increase in leakage current and a subsequent reduction of the voltage?

Reply to
Blake
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"Blake"

** Course it does.

** The rule for connecting two high voltage electros is series is that they are both the same ( age, type, ratings, temp) plus the combined voltage is comfortably over (by say 25% ) the actual max DC voltage expected.

The caps will then sort it out themselves.

Ballast resistors are optional.

......... Phil

Reply to
Phil Allison

Yes it does tend to do that.

Yes, the danger can be very real.

Correct. But the caps have to be fairly well matched and have a certain minimum voltage spec over the working voltage in order for them to "self balance". So you might get away with it in many cases, in other cases you could be asking for trouble in the long term, and in some cases ballast resistor will be essential. Good practice is to put a ballast resistor in parallel with each cap unless you have a specific reason not to. The required resistor value can be calculated by:

R=(CapLeakRes * (MaxCapVolt-(Vrail/2)) / (Vrail-MaxCapVolt)) * 2

Dave :)

Reply to
David L. Jones

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