Resistor values Chapter 2 - Resistor standards and codes

Standard resistor values

In 1952 the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) decided to define the resistance and tolerance values into a norm, to ease the mass manufacturing of resistors. These are referred to as preferred values or E-series, and they are published in standard IEC 60063:1963. These standard values are also valid for other components like capacitors, inductors and Zener diodes. The preferred values for resistors were established in 1952, but the concept of the geometric series was already introduced by army engineer Renard in the 1870s.

The standardization of resistor values serves several important purposes. When manufacturers produce resistors with different resistance values, these end up approximately equally spaced on a logarithmic scale. This helps the supplier to limit the number of different values that have to be produced or kept in stock. By using standard values, resistors of different manufacturers are compatible for the same design, which is favorable for the electrical engineer.

Aside from the preferred values, many other standards related to resistors exist. An example is standard sizes for resistors, or the marking of resistors with color codes or numerical codes. Power ratings of resistors are not defined in a norm, therefore often is deviated from the above described series.

Preferred values or E-series

As basis the E12 has been developed. E12 means that every decade (0.1-1, 1-10, 10-100 etc) is divided in 12 steps. The size of every step is equal to:

One could also say every value is 21% or 1.21 times higher than the last, rounded to whole numbers. Because of this, all resistors with a tolerance of 10% overlap. The series looks as follows: 1– 1.2 – 1.5 – 1.8 – 2.2 – 2.7 – 3.3 – 3.9 – 4.7 – 5.6 – 6.8 – 8.2 – 10 etc. All these values can be powers of ten (1.2– 12 – 120 etc).

Next to the E12 series, other series are existing. It is a good practise to specify resistors from a low series when tolerance requirements are not high. The most common series are:

E6 20%

E12 10%

E24 5% (also available with 1%)

E48 2%

E96 1%

E192 0.5% (also used for resistors with 0.25% and 0.1%).

E6 series (tolerance 20%) 10 15 22 33 47 68

The E6 series has six values in each decade. The Tolerance is 20%.

E12 series (tolerance 10%) 10 12 15 18 22 27 33 39 47 56 68 82

The E12 series is probably the most common series and exist for almost every resistor. The tolerance is ±10%.

The E12 series of resistor values, including their color codes.

E24 series (tolerance 5% and 1%) 10 11 12 13 15 16 18 20 22 24 27 30 33 36 39 43 47 51 56 62 68 75 82 91

E48 series (tolerance 2%) 100 105 110 115 121 127 133 140 147 154 162 169 178 187 196 205 215 226 237 249 261 274 287 301 316 332 348 365 383 402 422 442 464 487 511 536 562 590 619 649 681 715 750 787 825 866 909 953

Each decade is divided in 48 values. A third significant digit is added (just as for the E96 and E192 series).

E96 series (tolerance 1%) 100 102 105 107 110 113 115 118 121 124 127 130 133 137 140 143 147 150 154 158 162 165 169 174 178 182 187 191 196 200 205 210 215 221 226 232 237 243 249 255 261 267 274 280 287 294 301 309 316 324 332 340 348 357 365 374 383 392 402 412 422 432 442 453 464 475 487 499 511 523 536 549 562 576 590 604 619 634 649 665 681 698 715 732 750 768 787 806 825 845 866 887 909 931 953 976