Electronic – use higher rated capacitor and larger package (for capacitors, resistors, etc?)

capacitorcircuit-designesp32pcbpcb-design

I am trying to design a "custom" design for ESP32 based on the ESP32-pico-kit_v4.1_20180314_en.

Schematic: ESP32-Pico-kit V4.1

BOM: ESP32-Pico-kit V4.1

Why do capacitors C2,C4 and C15 have the same capacitance but different voltage ratings?

Is that for saving some space since the 6.3V is 0402 instead of 0603 and probably being cheaper or it does it have to do with ESR?

Regarding the resistors, could I replace them all with 0603 since 0402 is hard for me to solder?

By replacing them, is there any chance that the different package would make ESP32 not to work properly? If yes, why?

If ESP32 would work properly, are there any other cases where replacing with higher/smaller package would cause something not to work?

Best Answer

C4 is exposed to the externally driven EXT_5V input. I suppose that the designer wanted to ensure that an input higher than 5V would not damage the capacitor. Note that the regulator AMS1117 is capable of handling a 13.8V input.

C2 is only exposed to the regulated 3.3V output but it is likely picked to match C4 and reduce the number of different parts in the design. It's perfectly OK to use a capacitor with a higher rated voltage in place of a lower voltage one.

C15 sees only the 3.3V regulated output and doesn't need to be any higher voltage than that. Why did they pick 6.3? Probably because they wanted some margin on the spec or perhaps just had those readily available.