I'm looking at replacing a 78L05 regulator with a TI TL750L05 low-dropout regulator - the TI part has a lower dropout voltage, better transient and reverse bias protection, and can provide more current (though it'd probably toast my board and melt the enclosure in the process.) Of course, it needs a low ESR capacitor for stable operation. I've used LDO regs before with standard tantalums, but this data sheet has me scratching my head.
The data sheet seems to indicate that the ESR needs to be below 0.4 ohms for best stability. When I start hunting for low ESR tantalums on Digi-Key, I find that at 10 uF, an ESR of 1.6 ohms or so is about as low as they go. Am I reading the regulator datasheet wrong, misinterpreting the ESR rating, or maybe just looking in the wrong place for my parts?
Thanks,
Scott