P. S. Subramanyam.

Vignana Bharathi Institute of

Technology

It is only Steady State Current through the

Capacitor that is Blocked in the case of
D.C.
The Transient Current will flow.
In the case of D.C. the Capacitor is called a
Blocking Capacitor as it Blocks D.C. Signal.

The Capacitor connected between two stages

of a Cascaded Amplifier is called a Blocking
Capacitor or a Coupling Capacitor as it blocks
D.C. and allows only A.C. Signal to pass from
the First Stage to the next stage.

There are different ways explaining.

Mahtematically:
The Impedance (Reactance with no
Resistance) of the capacitor Xc = 1 /
(2*Pi*f*C).For D.C. frequency f = 0.
Then Xc = infinity and D.C. Current is blocked
and does not flow.For A.C. f is not Zero and
hence A.C. Current can flow.

2. D.C.Transients Point of view.:

The Property of Capacitance is that the
Capacitance acts initially as a Short Circuit
and finally as an Open Circuit,for D.C.
Excitation.
The Voltage across a Capacitor does not
change all on a sudden.
While charging it charges from zero to full
voltage and while discharging it discharges
from full voltage to zero,both exponentially.
This is the Principle used in Wave Shaping in

3. From Charging Point of View:

In the case of D.C. the Capacitor charges fully
to the Charging Voltage and the Voltage across
it will be equal to the Charging Voltage in
nearly 5 times the Time Constant.
In the case of D.C. the Voltage across the
capacitance does not change after full charging
and remains equal and opposite to the D.C.
Voltage across it and hence no current can flow
through it.
In the case of A.C., after full charging the
Voltage across the capacitance decreases and
reverses and so does the A.C. current through

4. From Field Theory Point of view:

The Current through the capacitance is
only a Diffusion Current.
Diffusion Current Density, Jd = Partial
differential of Vector D with reference to
time, and the Electric Flux Density D
remains constant in the case of D.C. after
the Capacitor is charged fully.

5. From Circuit Theory Point of View:

The Current through the Capacitance i = C*
( dv / dt ).
In the case of D.C. V is constant and if C is
Constant then i = 0. Generally C is constant
as it depends on the Geometry and the
Dielectric Constant of the Capacitor
Medium.

A capacitor blocks DC as once it gets charged up

to the input voltage with the same polarity then
no further transfer of electrons can happen
accept to replenish the slow discharge due to
leakage if any.
hence the flow of electrons which represents
electric current is stopped.
However, in case of AC the transfer of electrons
continues as the dielectric is not able to store the
potential input instantaneously and hence
continues to keep on transferring electrons and
consequent flow of current is possible.
At very high frequency if the dipole movement