A Simple Offline Technique for Evaluating the Condition of Aluminum–Electrolytic–Capacitors

Abstract

This paper presents a very simple technique to estimate the condition of aluminum-electrolytic-capacitors. The aging of aluminum-electrolytic-capacitors is expressed by the increase of their equivalent series resistance (ESR) and the reduction of their capacitance. Thus, the proposed technique is based on the estimation of both the ESR and capacitance values. To implement the proposed technique, the capacitor is fed by a sinusoidal voltage with the required power. The resultant impedance vector defined by the capacitor voltage and current gives enough information to estimate the condition of the capacitor.