8.1.2 Recommended Capacitor Types

The device is designed to be stable using low equivalent series resistance (ESR) capacitors at the input and output. Multilayer ceramic capacitors have become the industry standard for these types of applications and are recommended, but must be used with good judgment. Ceramic capacitors that employ X7R-, X5R-, and C0G-rated dielectric materials provide relatively good capacitive stability across temperature, whereas the use of Y5V-rated capacitors is discouraged because of large variations in capacitance.

Regardless of the ceramic capacitor type selected, the effective capacitance varies with operating voltage and temperature. As a rule of thumb, expect the effective capacitance to decrease by as much as 50%. The input and output capacitors recommended in the Recommended Operating Conditions table account for an effective capacitance of approximately 50% of the nominal value.