On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 9:29 AM, Xiaofan Chen <xiaofanc@gmail.com> wrote:

> The discussion topic here is the power supply "bypass"
> or "decoupling" caps and I agree with Olin that in general
> electrolytic is not recommended in this application. It
> might work in some cases.
>

Interestingly, Planet Analog just published a three part
article on this topic.
http://www.planetanalog.com/features/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199905522

I still use mostly 100nF and 10nF ceramic (0603 or 0402) capacitors
for bypass. For some more power hungry ICs, I will typically put
1uF (0603 or 0805), or 10uF (1206) in parallel with the 100nF/10nF.
Even for bulk capacitor after the linear regulators, ceramic capacitors
are replacing tantalum capacitors and electrolytic capacitors due
to space constraint. The main problem is the high voltage (say 35V
or 50V) bulk capacitors for DC/DC converters, that is still the kingdom of
electrolytic capacitors most of the time. Even there I will put several
ceramic capacitors in parallel.

-- 
Xiaofan http://mcuee.blogspot.com
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