Electronic – Using SMD capacitor as a decoupling capacitor

capacitordecouplingsurface-mount

I'm trying to figure out if one SMD capacitor is the same as a through hole decoupling capacitor. With the through hole capacitor the positive current is on one side of the capacitor and the negative current is on the other. And each pin distributes the current to the rest of the circut. It looks as if the capacitor is crossing the connections but everything works as it should. I want to apply the same set up in SMD format.

But I am unsure if I would use one Capacitor with both currents going through it on oposite sides or should I have two SMD capacitors one for positive current and the other for negative?

Best Answer

I think you have a misunderstanding about capacitors. The physical shape does not change the properties if the ratings are the same. So a 10nf 30V SMD cap is the same as a 10nf 30V through hole cap.

A decoupling cap in power circuits is used to short high frequency noise to ground. You sometimes have a few of them on your board near IC's. This prevents unwanted spurious signals from messing up your digital or analog signals.

A decoupling cap might also be used to filter out the DC component of a signal and only allowing the AC portion through. This is commonly used for analog inputs to amplifiers and RF circuits.