capacitor
<electronics> An electronic device that can store electrical charge. The
charge stored Q in Coulombs is related to the capacitance C in Farads and the
voltage V across the capacitor in Volts by Q = CV.
The basis of a dynamic RAM cell is a capacitor. They are also used for
power-supply smoothing (or "decoupling"). This is especially important in
digital circuits where a digital device switching between states causes a sudden
demand for current. Without sufficient local power supply decoupling, this
current "spike" cannot be supplied directly from the power supply due to the
inductance of the connectors and so will cause a sharp drop in the power supply
voltage near the switching device. This can cause other devices to malfunction
resulting in hard to trace glitches.
(1995-04-12)
Nearby terms:
Capabilities Maturity Model « capability « Capability
Maturity Model « capacitor » capacity » CAPI » Cap'n
Crunch
