Dielectric absorption is the property of a capacitor to retain a small amount of residual voltage after it has been fully discharged and left open-circuited. It happens because the dipoles inside the dielectric material take time to relax to their neutral state. This residual charge can introduce errors in precision analog circuits like sample-and-hold amplifiers.
Heard on the job
We need to spec a Teflon or polystyrene capacitor here to minimize dielectric absorption errors in the integrator.
Also heard as
- dielectric absorption
- soakage