Power Rail Reservoir Capacitor

Application

Use this circuit to see how an electrolytic reservoir capacitor charges a supply rail and supports a load.

Design Context

A 5 V source charges C1 through RSRC while RLOAD draws current from the rail.

Expected Behavior

With transient UIC enabled, Vrail rises with the RC time constant and capacitor current starts high before decaying.

Key Values

• RSRC is 100 ohm.
• C1 is 100 uF.
• RLOAD is 1 k.

Suggested Experiments

• Increase C1 to slow the charge curve.
• Reduce RLOAD to increase load current.
• Increase RSRC to model a weaker source.

Featured Component

The polarized capacitor component includes polarity, leakage, and reverse clamp behavior while acting as the rail reservoir.