[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. This is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then goes flat again. The bipolar pass control is harder than MOS since you are trying to keep the device out of saturation. That is besides the error amp there is some sort of anti-saturation circuit controlling the drive on the pass device. My thinking here is small signal. If you have huge spikes the performace even in the region where you do have loop gain can be nonlinear. For example the error amp can be slew rate limited. This looks like fine performance given the chip only draws 2.2mA. Just trawling the interwebs I found this on the TI website: https://training.ti.com/ldo-architecture-review At about the 18 minute point he goes into the regions of PSRR. I poked around so I can't vouch more all of the talk, . On Sun, 26 Sep 2021 18:21:36 -0400 John Ackermann N8UR wrote: > I got some interesting and unintended data today. I was measuring low > phase noise oscillators using a set of power supplies I just finished > putting together. > > The configuration is ~24 VDC into a TPS-53400 switching regulator > that outputs 19.2 volts at up to 3 amps. That output is fed to > separate regulator boards for each oscillator. Those boards each > have an LT-1086 linear pre-regulator that drops the input to about 17 > volts, which then goes into an ultra-low-noise LT3045A outputting 15 > volt to drive the oscillator. So there are two linear regulators and > lots of caps, inductors, and ferrite beads to isolate the oscillators > from the switching supply. > > Due to an error by an assembly tech who will remain nameless, the > wrong electrolytic was installed on the output side of the switching > regulator. It should have been 33uF at 50 volts, but what got > installed was 330 uF at 16 volts, so it was rated below the operating > voltage. (I was building two boards at the same time, one for 5V and > one for 19.2V. Apart from the voltage setting resistor, the only > difference between the two was the output cap. I managed to swap > them.) > > I tested the system on the bench for 24 hours and everything worked > fine, so I buttoned up the enclosure and started a 4 hour data > capture. About 70 minutes in, the electrolytic became very unhappy > and whatever it turned into caused the switcher to start spewing all > sorts of crud. The regulator kept working (sort of) through the end > of the run, but when I came into the lab the next morning it had shut > down completely and troubleshooting showed that the cap had shorted > at some point after the run completed, and the regulator chip went > into shutdown. > > Attached are a plot of frequency showing the whole run with the very > obvious change when the cap failed, and another zoomed view of the > critical moment. The failure was very abrupt with no visible lead-in. > > What I find interesting is that all that crud got through not one, > but two linear regulators, one of which is touted for its extremely > high PSRR (and I did my best to follow the recommended PCB layout for > that chip). That must have been one ugly 19V line when the cap > went... > > John ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Am 27.09.21 um 10:16 schrieb n...@lazygranch.com: I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. This is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. FET and predictable does not go together well. FET data sheets are seldom more than a page and normally don't promise hard limits. And then, like for the IF3602 there comes V2 with reduced claims after 20 years, much more like what we used to measure in real life, still slightly optimistic. https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then goes flat again. I would not call nearly 80 dB PSSR to 2 MHz bad. And @ 2MHz it is no longer really needed. A simple, cheap RC/LC pole does wonders there given it has some decades to develop its attenuation. Where it really counts is in the low Hz region, when even costly 1uF show barely any effect. Gerhard ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Gerhard Hoffmann writes: > Where it really counts is in the low Hz region, when even costly 1uF > show barely any effect. Do not overlook that electrolytics are variable capacitors, depending on pretty much anything and therefore may increase noise in the up-to-around-a-Hz domain. Plastic film capacitors of releavant size do exist, for instance Kemet's C44U series, but they are obviously huge and expensive. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | UNIX since Zilog Zeus 3.20 p...@freebsd.org | TCP/IP since RFC 956 FreeBSD committer | BSD since 4.3-tahoe Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
On 9/27/21 2:57 AM, Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: Am 27.09.21 um 10:16 schrieb n...@lazygranch.com: I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. This is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. FET and predictable does not go together well. FET data sheets are seldom more than a page and normally don't promise hard limits. And then, like for the IF3602 there comes V2 with reduced claims after 20 years, much more like what we used to measure in real life, still slightly optimistic. https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then goes flat again. I would not call nearly 80 dB PSSR to 2 MHz bad. And @ 2MHz it is no longer really needed. A simple, cheap RC/LC pole does wonders there given it has some decades to develop its attenuation. Actually, I like that it still has significant rejection even higher. Sure a single RC or RLC has good effect, but you can use smaller L and C to get the same "whole circuit" rejection. What we've done with these is set the voltage of the regulator a few tenths higher to account for the IR drop in the LC filters (which have parasitic R in the L) so that the "at load" voltage is right. For most of the MMIC RF ampliifers, the bias current is essentially constant (changing with temperature) since we're in a (very) small signal Class A regime. The change in bias with temperature (and any gain change too) gets calibrated out later - because what's important to me is "quiet" from 0.1 to 30 MHz, and in particular, suppressing 700-800 kHz (and harmonics) from the upstream DC/DC converters. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
One other thing to consider with LDOs: some types can go unstable and oscillate with the wrong (combination of) capacitors on input and output. So any time you design in an LDO, it is important to closely scrutinize the datasheet and application note(s) and heed their warnings. Unless you like rude surprises, that is :-) Dana On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 3:16 AM n...@lazygranch.com wrote: > I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a portion > of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so I have no > guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if you do it > right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the capacitance across > the pass device and the filter capacitor. This is a bit more > predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. > > https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html > > You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to > flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a > while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant > and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to > capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some > secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then goes > flat again. > > The bipolar pass control is harder than MOS since you are trying to > keep the device out of saturation. That is besides the error amp there > is some sort of anti-saturation circuit controlling the drive on the > pass device. > > My thinking here is small signal. If you have huge spikes the > performace even in the region where you do have loop gain can be > nonlinear. For example the error amp can be slew rate limited. > > This looks like fine performance given the chip only draws 2.2mA. > > Just trawling the interwebs I found this on the TI website: > https://training.ti.com/ldo-architecture-review > At about the 18 minute point he goes into the regions of PSRR. I poked > around so I can't vouch more all of the talk, > > . > > On Sun, 26 Sep 2021 18:21:36 -0400 > John Ackermann N8UR wrote: > > > I got some interesting and unintended data today. I was measuring low > > phase noise oscillators using a set of power supplies I just finished > > putting together. > > > > The configuration is ~24 VDC into a TPS-53400 switching regulator > > that outputs 19.2 volts at up to 3 amps. That output is fed to > > separate regulator boards for each oscillator. Those boards each > > have an LT-1086 linear pre-regulator that drops the input to about 17 > > volts, which then goes into an ultra-low-noise LT3045A outputting 15 > > volt to drive the oscillator. So there are two linear regulators and > > lots of caps, inductors, and ferrite beads to isolate the oscillators > > from the switching supply. > > > > Due to an error by an assembly tech who will remain nameless, the > > wrong electrolytic was installed on the output side of the switching > > regulator. It should have been 33uF at 50 volts, but what got > > installed was 330 uF at 16 volts, so it was rated below the operating > > voltage. (I was building two boards at the same time, one for 5V and > > one for 19.2V. Apart from the voltage setting resistor, the only > > difference between the two was the output cap. I managed to swap > > them.) > > > > I tested the system on the bench for 24 hours and everything worked > > fine, so I buttoned up the enclosure and started a 4 hour data > > capture. About 70 minutes in, the electrolytic became very unhappy > > and whatever it turned into caused the switcher to start spewing all > > sorts of crud. The regulator kept working (sort of) through the end > > of the run, but when I came into the lab the next morning it had shut > > down completely and troubleshooting showed that the cap had shorted > > at some point after the run completed, and the regulator chip went > > into shutdown. > > > > Attached are a plot of frequency showing the whole run with the very > > obvious change when the cap failed, and another zoomed view of the > > critical moment. The failure was very abrupt with no visible lead-in. > > > > What I find interesting is that all that crud got through not one, > > but two linear regulators, one of which is touted for its extremely > > high PSRR (and I did my best to follow the recommended PCB layout for > > that chip). That must have been one ugly 19V line when the cap > > went... > > > > John > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send > an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there. > ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Indeed, Dana. Texas Instruments has a nice "designer workbench" for their switching regulators like the TPS53400 to help select the components. Using that worked much better than trying to follow the data sheet circuits. I also found that high ESR caps, particularly on the output, are important. And also that you don't want to slowly ramp up the input voltage for testing, as the thing will start sqealing if fed with voltage way below the output. You want a quick start at the working input voltage. On 9/27/21 9:56 AM, Dana Whitlow wrote: One other thing to consider with LDOs: some types can go unstable and oscillate with the wrong (combination of) capacitors on input and output. So any time you design in an LDO, it is important to closely scrutinize the datasheet and application note(s) and heed their warnings. Unless you like rude surprises, that is :-) Dana On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 3:16 AM n...@lazygranch.com wrote: I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. This is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then goes flat again. The bipolar pass control is harder than MOS since you are trying to keep the device out of saturation. That is besides the error amp there is some sort of anti-saturation circuit controlling the drive on the pass device. My thinking here is small signal. If you have huge spikes the performace even in the region where you do have loop gain can be nonlinear. For example the error amp can be slew rate limited. This looks like fine performance given the chip only draws 2.2mA. Just trawling the interwebs I found this on the TI website: https://training.ti.com/ldo-architecture-review At about the 18 minute point he goes into the regions of PSRR. I poked around so I can't vouch more all of the talk, . On Sun, 26 Sep 2021 18:21:36 -0400 John Ackermann N8UR wrote: I got some interesting and unintended data today. I was measuring low phase noise oscillators using a set of power supplies I just finished putting together. The configuration is ~24 VDC into a TPS-53400 switching regulator that outputs 19.2 volts at up to 3 amps. That output is fed to separate regulator boards for each oscillator. Those boards each have an LT-1086 linear pre-regulator that drops the input to about 17 volts, which then goes into an ultra-low-noise LT3045A outputting 15 volt to drive the oscillator. So there are two linear regulators and lots of caps, inductors, and ferrite beads to isolate the oscillators from the switching supply. Due to an error by an assembly tech who will remain nameless, the wrong electrolytic was installed on the output side of the switching regulator. It should have been 33uF at 50 volts, but what got installed was 330 uF at 16 volts, so it was rated below the operating voltage. (I was building two boards at the same time, one for 5V and one for 19.2V. Apart from the voltage setting resistor, the only difference between the two was the output cap. I managed to swap them.) I tested the system on the bench for 24 hours and everything worked fine, so I buttoned up the enclosure and started a 4 hour data capture. About 70 minutes in, the electrolytic became very unhappy and whatever it turned into caused the switcher to start spewing all sorts of crud. The regulator kept working (sort of) through the end of the run, but when I came into the lab the next morning it had shut down completely and troubleshooting showed that the cap had shorted at some point after the run completed, and the regulator chip went into shutdown. Attached are a plot of frequency showing the whole run with the very obvious change when the cap failed, and another zoomed view of the critical moment. The failure was very abrupt with no visible lead-in. What I find interesting is that all that crud got through not one, but two linear regulators, one of which is touted for its extremely high PSRR (and I did my best to follow the recommended PCB layout for that chip). That must have been one ugly 19V line when the cap went... John ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
On 9/27/21 7:22 AM, John Ackermann N8UR wrote: Indeed, Dana. Texas Instruments has a nice "designer workbench" for their switching regulators like the TPS53400 to help select the components. Using that worked much better than trying to follow the data sheet circuits. I also found that high ESR caps, particularly on the output, are important. And also that you don't want to slowly ramp up the input voltage for testing, as the thing will start sqealing if fed with voltage way below the output. You want a quick start at the working input voltage. yes, you don't want to be too "soft start" on the upstream converter. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Hi, On 2021-09-27 16:28, Lux, Jim wrote: On 9/27/21 7:22 AM, John Ackermann N8UR wrote: Indeed, Dana. Texas Instruments has a nice "designer workbench" for their switching regulators like the TPS53400 to help select the components. Using that worked much better than trying to follow the data sheet circuits. I also found that high ESR caps, particularly on the output, are important. And also that you don't want to slowly ramp up the input voltage for testing, as the thing will start sqealing if fed with voltage way below the output. You want a quick start at the working input voltage. yes, you don't want to be too "soft start" on the upstream converter. Indeed. It may result in brown-out like conditions and creat wonderful magic states in equipment. Another similar enough thing is power-sequence, enabling power up in the right sequence. It's not the old "predictable" TTL designs anymore. Cheers, Magnus ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Best Leo Bodnar configuration for 10MHz
On 14/9/21 4:17 pm, Marek Dorsic wrote: > Hi Community, > >I received my Leo Bodnar Mini GPS Reference Clock. > The same 10MHz output frequency can be achieved by varios configuration > settings. > Are some of these combinations better than others? > Since I'm currently in the "playing with new (to me) toy" mode as over the weekend I had an HP 53310A show up, I figured I might as well chuck my own LeoNTP unit's 10MHz into it and see what I got. The reference oscillator is my house frequency standard out of an Efratom FRK, doubled and distributed via a Spectracom 8140. https://twitter.com/LapTop006/status/1442495414012243972/photo/1 1Hz span, the few samples that go off are all on-screen at a 5Hz span. Really neat unit, absolutely perfect for my ongoing oscillator experiments. (Sadly not only does this unit have the base oscillator and no 10811, it's also unable to be brought to cal, so pretty much only usable locked to a house reference) ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: 10 mhz distribution
I have used some TV baseband distribution amps. The first one I tried wasn't good though, due to it's DC restoration function, based on the sync tips. It resulted in distortion towards the positive end of the 10MHz sin, though it may be possible to find a compromise signal strength that is OK, or to modify the DC restorer. On Sun, Sep 26, 2021 at 5:43 PM jack.davis wrote: > I use an analog video distribution amplifier it has one input and 8 > outputs. I got it at a ham radio swap meet for $5.00 and it works great. > It has BNC input and outputs and a built-in power supply. Sent from my > Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone by Morse code. > Original message From: Louis Taber > Date: 9/25/21 6:47 PM (GMT-08:00) To: Discussion of precise time and > frequency measurement Subject: [time-nuts] Re: > 10 mhz distribution I have had good luck with the TAPR amp. > https://tapr.org/product/tadd-1-rf-distribution-amplifier/On Friday, > September 24, 2021, djl wrote:>> > https://www.sv1afn.com/en/gnss-gps/10-mhz-distribution-amplifier.html> > has other interesting stuff...> > >>___time-nuts > mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email > to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.comTo unsubscribe, go to and follow the > instructions there. > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send > an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com > To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Did you mean low ESR? A good switcher design will have an undervoltage lockout. There are a few groups that test a chip before release. One is the applications group. They will put the DC/DC on a bench supply and slowly dial up the voltage. Everything needs to behave at any voltage withing specs. Then they will use a home brew P pass fet pulser to jam the circuit. That could catch a latch up condition. Depending on the company, they will short adjacent pins. This is to mimic a clumsy engineer or tech with a scope probe. Mind you passing that test isn't a requirement but often you will pick a pin layout that allows for such nonsense. The applications group may short a pin to ground, one at a time. If the chip has an internal fet, the designer may elect to current limit the device. This is a gray zone in the design since circuitry is being added that should not be needed in the real world. The idea behind this protection is during the design-in phase the customer might feel a little nervous about the part if they accidentally destroy one. Yeah even if it is their own fault. Better to have the designer to say "Whew that was close...ah it still works." Some companies don't go this far with the idea being you give (or sell) an evaluation board so there is nothing for the customer to probe. The above may be repeated with a pin one at a time to a hard supply. Personally I think that is ridiculous and never designed for the case unless it was a current limit. I will say that because these chips have logic state machines in them, it is possible that pulling some pin high or low might get the state machine in an unanticipated condition. Ideally the state machine has no uncovered state that will lock up. I would design in a watchdog timer. Even if things were crazy, it would only be for a short time period. You read about wall warts catching fire. You don't want to be that person who created that product. On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 10:22:21 -0400 John Ackermann N8UR wrote: > Indeed, Dana. Texas Instruments has a nice "designer workbench" for > their switching regulators like the TPS53400 to help select the > components. Using that worked much better than trying to follow the > data sheet circuits. > > I also found that high ESR caps, particularly on the output, are > important. And also that you don't want to slowly ramp up the input > voltage for testing, as the thing will start sqealing if fed with > voltage way below the output. You want a quick start at the working > input voltage. > > On 9/27/21 9:56 AM, Dana Whitlow wrote: > > One other thing to consider with LDOs: some types can go unstable > > and oscillate with > > the wrong (combination of) capacitors on input and output. So any > > time you design in > > an LDO, it is important to closely scrutinize the datasheet and > > application note(s) and > > heed their warnings. Unless you like rude surprises, that is :-) > > > > Dana > > > > > > On Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 3:16 AM n...@lazygranch.com > > wrote: > > > >> I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a > >> portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), > >> so I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a > >> LDO if you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of > >> the capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. > >> This is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. > >> > >> https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html > >> > >> You can see the PSRR after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears > >> to flatten. I assume the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes > >> flat for a while. The idea here is the drive on the pass device is > >> constant and just maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is > >> mostly due to capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device > >> there is some secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection > >> improves then goes flat again. > >> > >> The bipolar pass control is harder than MOS since you are trying to > >> keep the device out of saturation. That is besides the error amp > >> there is some sort of anti-saturation circuit controlling the > >> drive on the pass device. > >> > >> My thinking here is small signal. If you have huge spikes the > >> performace even in the region where you do have loop gain can be > >> nonlinear. For example the error amp can be slew rate limited. > >> > >> This looks like fine performance given the chip only draws 2.2mA. > >> > >> Just trawling the interwebs I found this on the TI website: > >> https://training.ti.com/ldo-architecture-review > >> At about the 18 minute point he goes into the regions of PSRR. I > >> poked around so I can't vouch more all of the talk, > >> > >> . > >> > >> On Sun, 26 Sep 2021 18:21:36 -0400 > >> John Ackermann N8UR wrote: > >> > >>> I got some interesting and unintended data today. I was measuring > >>> low phase noise oscillators using a set of power supplies I just > >>> f
[time-nuts] Re: Death of a Capacitor
Generally this fet is internal and thus well known. On Mon, 27 Sep 2021 11:57:19 +0200 Gerhard Hoffmann wrote: > > Am 27.09.21 um 10:16 schrieb n...@lazygranch.com: > > I've only designed one LDO as a discrete chip (as opposed to a > > portion of a chip where performance just has to be good enough), so > > I have no guru status. That said, what spikes pass through a LDO if > > you do it right is simply a capacitor divider comprised of the > > capacitance across the pass device and the filter capacitor. This > > is a bit more predictable with a PFET pass than a PNP. > FET and predictable does not go together well. FET data sheets are > seldom more than a page and normally don't promise hard limits. And > then, like for the IF3602 there comes V2 with reduced claims after 20 > years, much more like what we used to measure in real life, still > slightly optimistic. > > > https://www.analog.com/en/products/lt3045.html You can see the PSRR > > after a point (200kHz) rolls off and appears to flatten. I assume > > the error amp is out of loop gain. It goes flat for a while. The > > idea here is the drive on the pass device is constant and just > > maintains the DC voltage. The AC rejection is mostly due to > > capacitance ratios. This being a bipolar pass device there is some > > secondary effect here where after 2MHz the rejection improves then > > goes flat again. > I would not call nearly 80 dB PSSR to 2 MHz bad. And @ 2MHz it is no > longer really needed. A simple, cheap RC/LC pole does wonders there > given it has some decades to develop its attenuation. > > Where it really counts is in the low Hz region, when even costly > 1uF show barely any effect. > > Gerhard > > ___ > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe > send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to > and follow the instructions there. ___ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@lists.febo.com -- To unsubscribe send an email to time-nuts-le...@lists.febo.com To unsubscribe, go to and follow the instructions there.