Voltage Regulators

Electronic Devices and Circuits

Voltage Regulators
A circuit that maintains a constant load voltage
despite variations in current load.

IT = (Vs Vz)/ RS
Where:
IT = The total current drawn from the filtered
rectifier
Vs= The source voltage
Vz= The nominal zener voltage
RS = the series resistor

Load Current:
IL = VZ / RL

Zener Current:
IZ = IT - IL

Example
With the applied voltage of 20V and a zener voltage
of 9.1 V, what will be the total circuit current and
load current if R is 2.2K and RL is 10K?

Load Variations
IL

(max)

= IT IZK

RL(min) = VZ/IL(max)

 A Zener diode has values of IZK = 3 mA and IZM =

100 mA. What is the minimum allowable value of

RL if the rectified filtered voltage is 20V, Rs = 1
K, Vz = 3.3V?

Zener Reduction of Ripple

Voltage
Vr(out) = (ZZ/(ZZ+ RS)) * Vr

Where:
Vr(out) = The ripple present at the regulator
output
ZZ = the zener impedance, obtained from the diode
spec sheet
RS = the regulator series resistance
Vr = the peak to peak ripple voltage present at the
regulator input

Circuit Development
When a zener regulator is designed, a value of
series resistance must be chosen to fulfill the
following requirements: Rs = (VS VZ)/IZ

1. The value of Rs must be small enough to ensure

that the value of zener current will not drop below

IZK under normal circumstances.

2. The value of Rs must be large enough to ensure

that the value of the zener current will never
exceed IZM.