Orders of magnitude (capacitance)

This page lists examples of capacitance. Grouped by orders of magnitude.

List of orders of magnitude for capacitance

Factor (Capacitance)	SI prefix	Value	Item
10−45	N/A	1.798 × 10−45	Planck capacitance
10−16		430 aF	Input capacitance of a minimum sized CMOS inverter in a 40nm process.
10−15	fF	2 fF	Gate capacitance of a MOS transistor, per µm of gate width.
10−14		30 fF	DRAM cell.
10−13		100 fF	Small ceramic capacitor.
		150 fF	Pin to pin capacitance in a SSOP/TSSOP integrated circuit package.
10−12	pF	1 pF	Small mica and PTFE capacitor.
		2 pF	Solderless breadboard, between two adjacent 5-contact columns.
		4 pF	Capacitive sensing of air-water-snow-ice.
		5 pF	Low condenser microphone.
10−11		12 pF	Typical 10× passive oscilloscope probe.
		45 pF	Variable capacitor
		49 pF	Yoga mat of TPE with relative permittivity of 4.5 and 8 mm thick sandwiched between two 1 dm² electrodes.
		50 pF	1 m of Cat 5 network cable (between the two conductors of a twisted pair)
10−10		100 pF	Capacitance of the standard human body model.
			1 m of 50 Ω coaxial cable (between the inner and outer conductors)
			High condenser microphone.
		330 pF	Variable capacitor
10−9	nF	1 nF	Typical leyden jar.
10−8
10−7		100 nF	Small aluminium electrolytic capacitor.
		820 nF	Large mica and PTFE capacitor.
10−6	µF
10−5
10−4		100 µF	Large ceramic capacitor.
10−4		740 µF	Self-capacitance of earth
10−3	mF	6.8 mF	Small electric double layer supercapacitor.
10−2	cF
10−1	dF
100	F	1 F	Earth–ionosphere capacitance.
		1.5 F	Large aluminium electrolytic capacitor.
101	daF
102	hF
103	kF	5 kF	Large electric double layer supercapacitor.

SI multiples

SI multiples of farad (F)

Submultiples				Multiples
Value	SI symbol	Name		Value	SI symbol	Name
10−1 F	dF	decifarad		101 F	daF	decafarad
10−2 F	cF	centifarad		102 F	hF	hectofarad
10−3 F	mF	millifarad		103 F	kF	kilofarad
10−6 F	µF	microfarad		106 F	MF	megafarad
10−9 F	nF	nanofarad		109 F	GF	gigafarad
10−12 F	pF	picofarad		1012 F	TF	terafarad
10−15 F	fF	femtofarad		1015 F	PF	petafarad
10−18 F	aF	attofarad		1018 F	EF	exafarad
10−21 F	zF	zeptofarad		1021 F	ZF	zettafarad
10−24 F	yF	yoctofarad		1024 F	YF	yottafarad

The farad is named after Michael Faraday. As with every SI unit named for a person, its symbol starts with an upper case letter (F), but when written in full it follows the rules for capitalisation of a common noun; i.e., "farad" becomes capitalised at the beginning of a sentence and in titles, but is otherwise in lower case.

See also

• Capacitance
• Capacitor
• Types of capacitor
• Metric system
• Scientific notation