including applications where you might be using a Zener diode or voltage regulator. Using a voltage reference in place of a Zener diode is about efficiency and simplicity. The voltage across the ...

For the longest time, Zener diode regulators have been one of those ... To make a Zener into a “proper” voltage regulator, you just need to buffer the output with an amplifier of some kind.

Some of my future columns will cover the three types of IC references: buried zener, bandgap, and XFET. You develop the reference-design procedure with a zener diode; the zener's ... and the ...

A zener diode is like a normal silicon diode ... If you’re looking for a voltage regulator for a microcontroller that’s impossibly easy and you’re all out of 7805s, pick up a zener.

In this circuit, we show how to create a simple constant current source using a cheap 3-terminal adjustable regulator. Figure 5A shows a simple voltage reference using a current source to bias the ...

when added to the 1.25V drop of the internal regulator, will yield a total voltage drop of 1.45V-1.50V. Using the LM317 in this configuration causes it to behave similarly to a Zener diode with a ...

According to Microsemi, its new family of ultra-sharp knee Zener diodes offers four times the voltage regulation and a 40-fold improvement in typical lower leakage current versus comparable devices.