Voltage Regulator

A voltage regulator is a system designed to automatically maintain a constant voltage level.

Voltage regulator. R 1 can be calculated as where is the zener voltage and i. Voltage regulator any electrical or electronic device that maintains the voltage of a power source within acceptable limits. The current through the shunt regulator has diverted away from the load and flows uselessly to the ground making this form usually less efficient than the series regulator. A voltage regulator may use a simple feed forward design or may include negative feedback.

The function of a voltage regulator is to maintain a constant dc voltage at the output irrespective of voltage fluctuations at the input and or variations in the load current. If you have electrical equipment that won t turn on that could. A voltage regulator is designed to automatically regulate voltage level. The image shows a simple shunt voltage regulator that operates by way of the zener diode s action of maintaining a constant voltage across itself when the current through it is sufficient to take it into the zener breakdown region.

This makes sure that even when a load is applied the voltage doesn t drop. Voltage regulators are commonly found in vehicles and other electronic equipment. This type of regulator acts as a voltage divider on your circuit and is the kind of regulator commonly used when you re designing low power and low cost applications. In other words voltage regulator produces a regulated dc output voltage.

The resistor r 1 supplies the zener current as well as the load current i r2 r 2 is the load. A voltage regulator generates a fixed output voltage of a preset magnitude that remains constant regardless of changes to its input voltage or load conditions. The voltage regulator is needed to keep voltages within the prescribed range that can be tolerated by the electrical equipment using that voltage. Voltage regulators a closer look.

A voltage regulator will limit the maximum amount of voltage from a power source and prevents a device or alternator from shorting and overheating. Depending on the design it may be used to regulate one or more ac or dc voltages. Signs of a bad voltage regulator in a vehicle include dimming or pulsing lights or a dead battery. Linear and switching a linear regulator employs an active bjt or mosfet pass device series or shunt controlled by a high gain differential ampl.

Series voltage regulator circuitseries voltage regulator circuit shunt voltage regulator. It may use an electromechanical mechanism or electronic components. It basically steps down the input voltage to the desired level and keeps that in that same level during the supply. As we ve seen in the section above the primary job of a voltage regulator is to drop a larger voltage to a smaller one and keep it stable since that regulated voltage is being used to power sensitive electronics.

With the linear regulator you ll be taking advantage of a power transistor bjt or mosfet that plays the role of a variable resistor raising and lowering the output voltage of your circuit as your input supply changes.