Zhao, it is helpful to think about this in the frequency domain. A tantalum capacitor of any size will reach its lowest impedance in the 1000's to 10,000's of Hz. It will support the PDS impedance out to a point where the ceramic capacitor network takes over, typically between a few hundred KHz to no more than 10MHz. At 10MHz the spreading inductance of a plane pair even on a thick PCB is still quite low. As a result, we can pretty much locate the bulk capacitors anywhere on the board that is convenient as far as the IC load current is concerned. This usually makes it a good idea to concentrate them close to the voltage regulator module. Using a number of smaller capacitors rather than a few large capacitors can result in a lower cost network due to the mounted inductance of the devices. Spreading devices around is only useful if there is significant spreading resistance. This should be evaluated on a design by design basis. The VRM maintains a low impedance out to a frequency that varies widely by the design of the VRM. A bypass network should be engineered and not built by cookbook rules. That means you need to know how the VRM response is defined, with or without a particular bulk capacitor. Then from your requirements, you can synthesize the rest of the network. Steve At 11:09 PM 1/26/2005 -0600, Zhao Yu wrote: > >dear sir, > I confuse to use the bulk bypass capacitor. It is sai= d that the bulk >capacitor is not to cancel the switch noise,but to eliminat= e the low >frequency noise such as refresh of DRAMs. So i think it does not = need to >place the bulk capacitor near power pins of chips, Is it right?(que= stion >1) > And i see some mater= ials which recommed to place lots of small >distributed bulk capacitor on th= e board instead of using a few large bulk >ones. So if this idea is true, wh= en we choose the bulk capacitor,we only >need to calculate all the current i= n the circuit and choose the >corresponding bulk capacitors whose sum is equ= al to the request, then >distribute them on the board. That is to say we nee= d not to choose bulk >capacitors according to precise requirement of every c= hips and assign >everychips a bulk capacitor.Is that right?(question 2) >= At very low frequecy, up to seve= ral KHZ typically, the voltage >regulator module supplies enough low impedan= ce and the ripple voltage is >small enough. So we need no bypass capacitors = in this bandwidth. Compared >with a actual system, i concider the power chip= s as the voltage regulator >module, but as we know the power supply circuit = contain a large value >capacitor used to keep stable voltage, can i concider= it as a bulk >capacitorand subtract its value from the requested bulk capa= citance by all >the circuit? (question 3) > &= nbsp; > >BEST WISHES >--=20 > >___________________________________________________________ >Sign-up f= or Ads Free at Mail.com >http://www.mail.com/?sr=3Dsignup[1] > >--- Links --- > 1 3D"http://mail01.mail.com/scripts/payment/adtracking.cgi?bannercode= >------------------------------------------------------------------ >To unsubscribe from si-list: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field > >or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: >//www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list > >For help: >si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field > >List FAQ wiki page is located at: > http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ > >List technical documents are available at: > http://www.si-list.org > >List archives are viewable at: > //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list >or at our remote archives: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages >Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: > http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu > ------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from si-list: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field or to administer your membership from a web page, go to: //www.freelists.org/webpage/si-list For help: si-list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'help' in the Subject field List FAQ wiki page is located at: http://si-list.org/wiki/wiki.pl?Si-List_FAQ List technical documents are available at: http://www.si-list.org List archives are viewable at: //www.freelists.org/archives/si-list or at our remote archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/si-list/messages Old (prior to June 6, 2001) list archives are viewable at: http://www.qsl.net/wb6tpu