9.2.2.2.3 Input Capacitor Selection

The buck converter has a natural pulsating input current; therefore, a low ESR input capacitor is required for best input voltage filtering and minimizing the interference with other circuits caused by high input voltage spikes. For most applications, a 10-μF ceramic capacitor is recommended. The input capacitor can be increased without any limit for better input voltage filtering.

Take care when using only small ceramic input capacitors. When a ceramic capacitor is used at the input and the power is being supplied through long wires, such as from a wall adapter, a load step at the output or V_IN step on the input can induce ringing at the V_IN pin. The ringing can couple to the output and be mistaken as loop instability or could even damage the part by exceeding the maximum ratings.