Tag: voltage rating

MMC calculator

MMC tank design calculator for SGTC, VTTC, DRSSTC and QCWDRSSTC Tesla coils. Results are guidelines to designing a MMC and should always be double checked in your final design! Most importantly is that voltage rating is the DC voltage rating, from experience this can used for good quality capacitors, AC voltage rating with frequency derating would be much lower.

Capacitor specifications are taken from data sheets at 100 kHz and some values for peak current, rms current, ESR and dv/dt are estimates from similar capacitors and graph read outs.

Inputs are in green. Outputs are in red. Formulas used can be seen below the calculator.

Basic MMC configuration – List of good MMC capacitors
Capacitance uF
Voltage rating VDC  
Capacitors in series
Strings in parallel
Price per capacitor  
Results
MMC voltage rating VDC  
MMC capacitance uF  
Total capacitors  
Total MMC price  
Advanced options
MMC capacitor parameters
Peak current rating A  
RMS current rating A  
dV/dt rating V/uS  
ESR rating mΩ Find correct ESR rating
for your resonant frequency
specific
dissipation factor		 ºC/W  
Tesla coil parameters – Examples are small, medium and large
Frequency kHz
Primary inductance uH  
Primary peak current A
On time uS
BPS BPS
Advanced results
Primary impedance
 Ohm  
MMC Xc
(reactance)		 Ohm  
MMC Zc
(impedance)		 Ohm  
Energy
(single cap)		 Joule  
Power dissipation
(single cap)		 Watt  
Temperature rise
(single cap)		 ºC 0-5 very good, 5-10 good
10-15 not good, 15+ bad
  Actual values MMC rating
Peak voltage MMC VDC VDC
RMS current MMC A A
dV/dt for MMC V/uS V/uS
Peak current for MMC A A

Theory used

MMC voltage rating: MMC voltage rating = DC voltage rating * capacitors in series.

MMC capacitance: MMC capacitance = (single capacitor capacitance * amount of capacitors in parallel) / amount of capacitors in a string.

Primary impedance: Zprimary = SQRT(Lp / Cp).

MMC Xc, reactance: Xc = 1 / (2 * PI * F * C). F is frequency in Hertz. C is capacitance in Farad.

MMC Zc, impedance: Zc = SQRT(ESR^2 + Xc^2). ESR is the combined ESR for the MMC. Xc is the MMC reactanse from above.

Peal voltage MMC: DC peak voltage over MMC = Zc * primary peak current

RMS current MMC: Irms = 0.5 * primary peak current * SQRT(on time * bangs per second). Steve McConner.

dV/dt MMC sees: Actual dV/dt in V/uS the MMC sees = (2 * Pi * V) / F. V is peak DC voltage over MMC and F is frequency in Hertz.

dV/dt rating MMC: dV/dt rating in V/uS = Primary peak current / MMC capacitance.

Peak current for MMC: Peak rating = capacitor peak rating * amount of capacitor strings in parallel.