Regards
Michael
> From [email protected] Wed Oct 29 08:57:12 1997
> Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 23:26:30 -0800
> From: Fred Townsend <[email protected]>
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> To: Andrew Phillips <[email protected]>
> CC: SI-LIST <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] : Decoupling capacitor selection & placement
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
> You have hit upon one of my favorite interview questions. I rarely get
> the correct answer from recent grads because our schools don't teach
> this important subject. Bypass capacitors are necessary because of
> trace and lead inductance and di/dt, the changing current in the
> circuit.
>
> Bypasses are usually applied on a prophylactic basis without regard for
> their proper functioning. Therefore the application is almost always
> wrong, but not so wrong that anyone would notice. In part because there
> is no such thing as too many bypass capacitors.
>
> 0.1 uf caps typically have a self resonate frequency, the frequency
> where a capacitor stops being a capacitor and becomes an inductor, of
> somewhere between 10 and 50 MHz depending upon lead length. Ground
> inductance usually reduces the effectiveness far below 10 MHz.
>
> Simply, a bypass must be large enough to supply the instantaneous di/dt
> and small enough to be below the self resonate frequency. The higher
> the current, the larger the bypass capacitor. The higher the di/dt
> (frequency) the smaller the capacitor. This frequently results in
> impossible locus of values.
>
> The answer is to use multiple capacitors at different sizes. For
> instance, the close in (to the circuit) value might be somewhere between
> 1000pf and 10 nf, followed by a 0.1uf ceramic and finally a 22uf
> tantalum at the power entry point for the circuit.
>
>
>
> Andrew Phillips wrote:
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > Please forgive me if my questions have been asked a million times before
> > ...
> >
> > When using decoupling capacitors to provide a low-impedance path between
> > power and ground it appears to be well-established that we must do the
> > following:
> >
> > - from device Vcc pin we drop a via to Vcc plane with as short a
> > connection as possible (to minimize lead inductance). Same for device
> > Gnd pin.
> > - from capacitor pads we also drop vias to Vcc and Gnd planes with very
> > short connections.
> >
> > What is the ruling for how close the capacitor needs to be to the device
> > Vcc and Gnd pins?
> >
> > For a device such as a microprocessor with multiple Vcc and Gnd pins,
> > how do we determine how many capacitors will be required?
> >
> > Many references suggest that using 1 x 0.1 uF cap per Vcc-Gnd pair is a
> > good rule-of-thumb - how is this value determined, and are there
> > situations when it is invalid?
> >
> > Thanks for any help,
> >
> > Andrew Phillips
> > Cooperative Research Centre for Broadband Telecommunications &
> > Networking
> > Perth, Western Australia
> >
> > p.s. anyone interested in the Texas Instruments TMS320C6x DSP, please
> > check out my info site:
> >
> > http://www.atri.curtin.edu.au/~andrew/DSP_Design/tms320c6x.html
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Andrew Phillips <[email protected]>
> > Design Engineer
> > Cooperative Research Centre for Broadband Telecommunications & Networking
> >
> > Andrew Phillips
> > Design Engineer <[email protected]>
> > Cooperative Research Centre for Broadband Telecommunications & Networking HTML Mail
> > GPO Box U1987 Work: (618) 9266 3273
> > Perth Fax: (618) 9266 3244
> > Western Australia Netscape Conference Address
> > 6001 Netscape Conference DLS Server
> > Australia
> > Additional Information:
> > Last Name Phillips
> > First Name Andrew
>