Decoupling Capacitor - Transient Load Decoupling

Transient Load Decoupling

Transient load decoupling as described above is needed when there is a large load that gets switched quickly. The parasitic inductance in every (decoupling) capacitor may limit the suitable capacity and influence appropriate type if switching occurs very fast.

Logic circuits tend to do sudden switching (an ideal logic circuit would switch from low voltage to high voltage instantaneously, with no middle voltage ever observable). So logic circuit boards often have a decoupling capacitor close to each logic IC connected from each power supply connection to a nearby ground. These capacitors decouple every IC from every other IC in terms of supply voltage dips.

These capacitors are often placed at each power source as well as at each analog component in order to ensure that the supplies are as steady as possible. Otherwise, an analog component with poor power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) will copy fluctuations in the power supply onto its output.

In these applications, the decoupling capacitors are often called bypass capacitors to indicate that they provide an alternate path for high-frequency signals that would otherwise cause the normally steady supplies to move. Those components that require quick injections of current can bypass the power supply by receiving the current from the nearby capacitor. Hence, the slower power supply connection is used to charge these capacitors, and the capacitors actually provide the large quantities of high-availability current.