Just some simple question on a data sheet.
http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data Sheets/Infineon PDFs/TLE4274.pdf

Page 3 wants me to (pin1 block to ground directly at the IC with a ceramic capacitor.) Is this to help filter out some voltage spikes? What is the use of the capacitor?

 

Normally this is recommended where the regulator is a located a significant distance from the rectifier. It probably decouples induced noise and feedback at the input - thereby reducing the likelihood of noise or instability at the output.

 

Wow so if I dumb that down a bit = makes the output more stable? Is what I gather.

 

Wow so if I dumb that down a bit = makes the output more stable? Is what I gather.

That's about it. Though perhaps I would say that including the capacitor makes it less likely that one would have an unstable output.

 

It doesn't give me a farad rating just a capacitor style. I know to pick one that can handle the voltage going into my input and maybe just go a bit higher to be safe. What farad should I use? Dose bigger = better? Is it more of how bad my input spikes are, what the regulator is powering, how lazy I am that day kind of thing?

I did read the chapter about capacitors on this site.