Review of Wurth Elektronik : ABC of Capacitors - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: timgiles
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2015, 05:35:19 pm
content: Hi,Some perspective on me. I am not a beginner to electronics, however I have not read electronics at Univeristy. I put myself at the home hobbyist who has a few grey cells still firing at almost 40yo. Originally British, moved to Sweden. Working on a number of Arduino projects, designed a few different PCBs in Eagle to help me along. Hope that sets the scene! I bought all three of the recently released Wurth Elektronik books: ABC of capacitors (1st Ed), Trilogy of Connectors (2nd Ed + revised) and Trilogy of Magnetics (3rd Ed). I list them in the order of reviews I will post, the thickness of the book, the weight (or ability to use in a game of Cludo!). I hope you will find my reviews informative but if Electronics is to you what 'bypass devices' are to VW - I suggest seeking out a more expert opinion. All three books are extremely well made, high quality paper, covers, ribbons, diagrams, layout and indices. These are not cheap books to produce and paying what Wurth asked seems reasonable. I must also mention that these are in a sense promotional material for WE - but extremely detailed and well written manuals at the same time. Also, some of the texts conversion from German to English is not the best... Understandable, but not great.ABC of Capacitors55 pages of content10 pages of indices9.90 EUR / 12 USD (+ postage costs)Three chapters: Basic Principles, Capacitor Characteristics, Capacitor TypesBasic Principles : This chapter imparts basic knowledge on the relationships between the electric field, permittivity, as well as the structure and operating principles of a capacitor.From first principles, the electric field, the reader is guided through electric field strength, electrostatic induction, electric dipoles, polarization, diaelectric and permittivity, displacement flux and density and finally the capacitor, an overview of capacitance and types of. For someone who has not studied electronics, but a bit of maths, functions and a few diagrams is a good evenings read - this was excellent. I had no real idea about all the effects taking place in what I had always thought a simple electronic device. The writing is detailed enough and in the right order to make it a fun read - not something levelled at many books written about electronics. If this was all the book was, personally, I would have been happy for 9.90EUR.Capacitor characteristics : The electrical parameters and essential characteristics of a capacitor are explained in greater detail for the reader. This extends from the actual capacitance of a capacitor through to the inter-dependencies. This longer chapter dives in to all the various characteristics of capacitors. Starting with dependence on voltage, frequency and time and then introducing ESR and ESL, how to understand rated voltages, max voltage, insulation resistance, residual current, discharge, dissipation factor, quality factor, temperature effects /co-eff. pulse rise / loading, ripple, di-electric absorption and complex permittivity. So for me, if the first chapter was a fun interesting read, the second chapter started to test the grey matter. Again the chapter has been written to try to ensure you don't come across anything that requires knowledge you have not been given. Most of the concepts I can say I now have a reasonable understanding of.Capacitor types : Existing capacitor types and their characteristics are presented. Film, electrolyte and ceramic capacitors are considered in detail. Here WE covers the different types of capacitor, Film, Electrolytic, Ceramic, Class 1 to 4. I really like the way they have laid out the charts showing how the different capacitor types are linked, the different properties and how (in terms of WE parts) you recognise the type. Taking the WE specific information out, still leaves a useful addition to the book.If the middle section quickly overwhelms you, reading the first and third should still give you a good understanding of how capacitors work, why they work the way they do and the different types you can expect to find when shopping / selecting and which are more / less appropriate. The key word index is really good, I have noticed anything being left out. So again, if you just want to understand ESR or ESL, you can quickly nip in to part of chapter 2.Overall opinion - If your 'dunny' had one of these inside it, you wouldn't come out for a couple of hours!For the money, I think its a bargain. If you want a gift for someone in to electronics that has not been to Uni (or equivalent) or yourself are looking for an interesting read, ABC of Capacitors I believe should be in your list.

author: Floyo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2015, 06:05:35 pm
content: I recently got this little book, the trilogy of magnetics and the LT-Spice book from Würth. The ABC of capacitors gets absolutely dwarfed by the other two. The quality of the paper and over is indeed rather nice. I like the writing of the "ABC" best, its pretty readable just for fun, and the structure is logical.I didn't feel the same for the trilogy of magnetics, the intro is fine, but then it goes into a rather detailed history of the ethernet standard for no real reason. It just feels a bit more slapped together and reads a bit more like a reference manual instead of a textbook. The application section has a wealth of details I haven't fully looked at yet, but the designs including pcb layouts etc are helpful in getting to understand what it takes to make a switch mode converter work properly.The LT-Spice book is more of a collection of screenshots, it starts with a little intro into the history of SPICE and then takes you by the hand in getting LT-Spice up and running.I haven't made it that far into the book, but its nice to have since LT-Spice can be a bit dense at times.

author: timgiles
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 16, 2015, 06:07:54 pm
content: Yes, I agree (about the Magnetics one). But the final section on PSU design is pretty good. And there are some gems in it Ill mention (IMO anyway). More to come... thanks for the reply