Constant power loads (CPLs) often cause instability due to its negative impedance characteristics. In this study, the stability of a DC microgrid with CPLs under a distributed control that aims at current sharing and voltage recovery is analyzed. The effect of the negative impedance on the behavior of distributed controller is investigated. The small-signal model is established to predict the system qualitative behavior around equilibrium. The stability conditions of the system with time delay are derived based on the equivalent linearized model. Additionally, eigenvalue analysis based on inertia theorem provides analytical sufficient conditions as a function of the system parameters, and thus it leads to a design guideline to build reliable microgrids. Simulations are performed to confirm the effectiveness and validity of the proposed method. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.