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BEKE 2333 ANALOGUE ELECTRONICS
VOLTAGE REGULATOR
Dr. Wahidah Abd. Halim
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
Outline
Introduction
Voltage Regulation
Line Regulation
Load Regulation
Series Voltage Regulation
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Introduction
Batteries are often shown on a schematic diagram as the
source of DC voltage but usually the actual DC voltage
source is a power supply.
There are many types of power supply. Most are designed
to convert high voltage AC mains electricity to a suitable
low voltage supply for electronics circuits and other
devices.
A more reliable method of obtaining DC power is to
transform, rectify, filter and regulate an AC line voltage.
A power supply can by broken down into a series of blocks,
each of which performs a particular function.
Introduction
Power supply: a group of circuits that convert the
standard ac voltage (120 V, 60 Hz) provided by the wall
outlet to constant dc voltage
Transformer : a device that step up or step down the ac
voltage provided by the wall outlet to a desired amplitude
through the action of a magnetic field
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Introduction
Rectifier: a diode circuits that converts the ac input
voltage to a pulsating dc voltage
The pulsating dc voltage is only suitable to be used as a
battery charger, but not good enough to be used as a dc
power supply in a radio, stereo system, computer and so
on.
Introduction
There are two basic types of rectifier circuits:
Half-wave rectifier
Full-wave rectifier - Center-tapped & Bridge full-wave rectifier
In summary, a full-wave rectified signal has less ripple
than a half-wave rectified signal and is thus better to apply
to a filter.
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Introduction
Filter: a circuit used to reduce the fluctuation in the
rectified output voltage or ripple. This provides a steadier
dc voltage.
Regulator: a circuit used to produces a constant dc
output voltage by reducing the ripple to negligible amount.
One part of power supply.
Application
Example: Variable DC power supply
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Voltage Regulation
Two basic categories of voltage regulation are:
line regulation
load regulation
The purpose of line regulation is to maintain a nearly
constant output voltage when the input voltage varies.
The purpose of load regulation is to maintain a nearly
constant output voltage when the load varies
Line Regulation
Line regulation: A change in input (line) voltage does not significantly affect the
output voltage of a regulator (within certain limits)
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Line Regulation
Line regulation can be defined as the percentage change in the
output voltage for a given change in the input voltage.
V
Line regulation OUT 100%
VIN
Δ means “a change in”
Line regulation can be calculated using the following formula:
Line regulation
VOUT / VOUT 100%
VIN
Load Regulation
Load regulation: A change in load current (due to a varying R L) has practically no
effect on the output voltage of a regulator (within certain limits)
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Load Regulation
Load regulation can be defined as the percentage change in the
output voltage from no-load (NL) to full-load (FL).
V VFL
Load regulation NL 100 %
V FL
Where:
VNL = the no-load output voltage
VFL = the full-load output voltage
Example
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Example
Problem
1. The input of a certain regulator increases by 3.5 V. As a
result, the output voltage increases by 0.042 V. The
nominal output is 20 V. Determine the line regulation in
both % and in %/V.
(Solution: 1.2% ; 0.06%/V)
2. If a 5 V power supply has an output resistance of 80 mΩ
and a specific maximum output current of 1 A. Calculate
the load regulation in % and %/mA.
(Solution: 1.6% ; 0.0016%/mA)
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Simple voltage regulator
Regulator - Zener diode regulator
For low current power supplies - a simple voltage regulator can
be made with a resistor and a zener diode connected in reverse.
Zener diodes are rated by their breakdown voltage Vz and
maximum power Pz (typically 400mW or 1.3W)
Types of Regulator
Fundamental classes of voltage regulators are linear
regulators and switching regulators.
Two basic types of linear regulator are the series regulator
and the shunt regulator .
The series regulator is connected in series with the load
and the shunt regulator is connected in parallel with the
load.
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Series Regulator Circuit
Control element in series
with load between input
and output.
Output sample circuit
senses a change in output
voltage.
Error detector compares
sample voltage with
reference voltage →
causes control element to
compensate in order to
maintain a constant output
voltage.
Transistor Series Regulator
The transistor Q1 is the series control element.
Zener diode provides the reference voltage.
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Transistor Series Regulator
Since Q1 is an npn transistor, Vo is found as:
VBE VZ Vo
The response of the pass-transistor to a change in load resistance as follows:
If load resistance increases, load voltage also increases.
The regulating operations:
1. If the output voltage decreases, the increased base-emitter voltage causes
transistor Q1 to conduct more, thereby raising the output voltage—maintaining
the output constant.
2. If the output voltage increases, the decreased base-emitter voltage causes
transistor Q1 to conduct less, thereby reducing the output voltage—maintaining
the output constant.
Example
Calculate the output voltage and Zener current for R L=1kΩ.
(Solution: Vo=11.3 V; Iz≈36 mA)
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Improved Series Regulator
Fig. 15.15: Improved series regulator circuit.
Resistors R1 and R2 act as a sampling circuit, with Zener diode DZ providing a
reference voltage, and transistor Q2 then controls the base current to transistor
Q1 to vary the current passed by transistor Q1 to maintain the output voltage
constant.
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Improved Series Regulator
The regulated output voltage, Vo
Op-Amp Series Regulator
Control Element
VREF
Sample
Error Detector Circuit
Reference
Voltage
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Op-Amp Series Regulator
The resistor R1 and R2 sense a change in the output voltage and
provide a feedback voltage.
The error detector compares the feedback voltage with a Zener diode
reference voltage.
The resulting difference voltage causes the transistor Q 1 controls the
conduction to compensate the variation of the output voltage.
The closed loop voltage gain is:
R1
Acl 1
R2
The regulated output voltage will be:
R
Vo 1 1 VZ
R2
Example
Determine the output voltage for the regulator below.
(Solution: 10.2 V)
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Example
Op-Amp Series Regulator with
constant-current limiting
Control Element
Current-
limiter
VREF
Reference Sample
Error Detector
Voltage Circuit
Most regulators use some type of excess current protection in the form of a
current-limiting mechanism.
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Op-Amp Series Regulator with
constant-current limiting
The regulating operations:
• As the load current IL increases, the voltage drop
across RSC increases.
• When the voltage drop across RSC becomes large
enough, it will drive Q2 on.
• This will divert current from the base of Q1, thereby
reduce the load current IL through Q1, preventing any
additional current to load.
Op-Amp Series Regulator with
constant-current limiting
• Since the base-to-emitter voltage of cannot exceed
0.7 V, the voltage across RSC is held to this value,
and the load current is limited to
RSC
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Example
1) Determine the closed-loop voltage gain of the regulator.
2) Determine the regulated output voltage of the regulator.
𝑅2 10𝑘
Solution 1) 𝐴𝑣 = 1 + =1+ =2
𝑅3 10𝑘
2 𝑅
2) 𝑉𝑜 = 1 + 𝑅3 𝑉𝑍 = 2(5.1V)=10.2 V
Example
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Summary
Voltage regulators keep a constant dc output
voltage when the input or load varies within limits.
A basic voltage regulator consists of a reference
voltage source, an error detector, a sampling
element, and a control device. Protection circuitry
is also found in most regulators.
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