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Concept
Parasitic capacitance
Summary
Parasitic capacitance is an unavoidable and usually unwanted capacitance that exists between the parts of an electronic component or circuit simply because of their proximity to each other. When two electrical conductors at different voltages are close together, the electric field between them causes electric charge to be stored on them; this effect is capacitance.
All practical circuit elements such as inductors, diodes, and transistors have internal capacitance, which can cause their behavior to depart from that of ideal circuit elements. Additionally, there is always some capacitance between any two conductors; this can be significant with closely spaced conductors, such as wires or printed circuit board traces. The parasitic capacitance between the turns of an inductor or other wound component is often described as self-capacitance. However, in electromagnetics, the term self-capacitance more correctly refers to a different phenomenon: the capacitance of a conductive object without reference to another object.
Parasitic capacitance is a significant problem in high-frequency circuits and is often the factor limiting the operating frequency and bandwidth of electronic components and circuits.
When two conductors at different potentials are close to one another, they are affected by each other's electric field and store opposite electric charges like a capacitor. Changing the potential v between the conductors requires a current i into or out of the conductors to charge or discharge them.
where C is the capacitance between the conductors. For example, an inductor often acts as though it includes a parallel capacitor, because of its closely spaced windings. When a potential difference exists across the coil, wires lying adjacent to each other are at different potentials. They act like the plates of a capacitor, and store charge. Any change in the voltage across the coil requires extra current to charge and discharge these small 'capacitors'.
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