Ceramic capacitors have a dielectric made of ceramic materials. General specifications include configuration, capacitance type, and technology. There are two basic configurations for ceramic capacitors: leaded and surface mount. Leaded ceramic capacitors have leads for connections to circuits. Surface mount capacitors or chip capacitors do not. Ceramic capacitor technologies are categorized as monolithic, multilayer, or wound. Monolithic components use a dielectric made of a single layer. Multilayer devices are made of many layers and are small in size. They provide excellent temperature stability and frequency characteristics. Wound capacitors are built by winding foils, sometimes by hand. In terms of technology, there are two choices: fixed and variable. Fixed ceramic capacitors have a nonadjustable capacitance value. With variable ceramic capacitors, specific capacitance values are set with a potentiometer.
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