MODULE IV

IC REGULATORS AND DATA CONVERTERS

Voltage regulators
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. In other words, voltage regulator produces a regulated DC output
voltage.

Voltage regulators are also available in Integrated Circuits (IC) forms. These are
called as voltage regulator ICs.

Advantages of IC regulators:

1. It is very easy to use.

2. It greatly simplifies the power supply design.
3. IC regulators are small in size thus overall size of the power supply can be
reduced.
4. Cost is very less.
5. IC regulators are versatile.
6. IC regulators are provided with features like built in protection, programmable
output, current/voltage boosting, internal short circuit, current limiting etc.
Block Diagram of 3 Terminal IC based Voltage Regulator
It has three terminals.
1. input voltage (Vin)
2. Output voltage (Vo)
3. Common terminal (Ground).
The block diagram is basically of a series voltage regulator. A part of output
voltage is taken with the help of potential divider formed by R1 and R2. This is
compared with reference voltage; Vref internally generated using zener diode.
After comparison a control signal is generated and is applied through protective
circuit to the series pass transistor working as control element. The control signal
adjusts the control element in such a way that output voltage remains constant.
Thermal shut down means that the chip(IC) will automatically turn itself off if the
internal temperature exceeds, typically 175°C.
The current limiting circuit will protect the chip from excessive load current.
Because of thermal shutdown and current limiting, the IC voltage regulator chip is
almost indestructible.

Types of IC Voltage Regulators

There are basically four types of IC voltage regulators:

1. Fixed positive voltage regulator

2. Fixed negative voltage regulator
3. Adjustable voltage regulator
4. Dual-tracking voltage regulator

Fixed Positive Voltage Regulator

This IC regulator provides a fixed positive output voltage. Although many types of
IC regulators are available, the 7800 series of IC regulators is the most popular.
The last two digits in the part number indicate the d.c. output voltage. For example
[See Table below], the 7812 is a + 12V regulator whereas the 7805 is a + 5V
regulator. Note that this series (7800 series) provides fixed regulated voltages
from + 5 V to + 24V.
Typical Connection of IC 7805 Regulator

The Figure shows the typical connection of IC μA7805 regulator. The maximum
input voltage which can be applied to IC 7805 is 35 V. The maximum dropout
voltage is 2.5V. The output of 7805 regulator is 5 V fixed. Hence minimum input
voltage required is 5 + 2.5 = 7.5. So, input range of IC 7805 regulator is 7.5 V to
35 V to get fixed 5 V as regulated output.

Positive 5 V Power Supply using IC 7805

A 5V output voltage supply system using full wave bride rectifier, capacitor filter
and IC regulator 7805 is shown in the Figure. The a.c. line voltage is 230 V which
is stepped down to 15 V using a transformer. A full wave rectifier along with the
capacitor voltage provides the unregulated voltage input to IC 7805 regulator. This
input contains a.c. ripple of few volts. The IC 7805 regulator provides the
regulated output of 5V.
Fixed Negative Voltage Regulator
This IC regulator provides a fixed negative output voltage. The 7900 series of IC
regulators is commonly used for this purpose. This series (7900) is the negative-
voltage counterpart of the7800 series [See Table below]. Note that 7900 series
provide fixed regulated voltages from – 5V to – 24 V.

Circuit Diagram of Fixed Negative Voltage Regulator

The unregulated negative input voltage Vi is connected to IC’s IN terminal and the
IC’s OUT terminal provides – 12 V. Capacitors used in the circuit perform the
same function as in a fixed positive regulator.

Adjustable Voltage Regulator

An adjustable voltage regulator produces a DC output voltage, which can be

adjusted to any other value of certain voltage range. Hence, adjustable voltage
regulator is also called as a variable voltage regulator.

The DC output voltage value of an adjustable voltage regulator can be either

positive or negative.

LM317 adjustable voltage regulator

LM317 voltage regulator IC can be used for producing a desired positive fixed DC
voltage value of the available voltage range.

LM317 voltage regulator IC has 3 pins. The first pin is used for adjusting the
output voltage, second pin is used for collecting the output and third pin is used for
connecting the input. The adjustable pin (terminal) is provided with a variable
resistor which lets the output to vary between a wide range. LM317 is a classic
example of positive adjustable voltage regulator, whose output voltage can be
varied over a range of 1.2 volts to 37 volts. LM337 is an example of negative
adjustable voltage regulator. LM337 is actually a complement of LM317 which are
similar in operation & design; with the only difference being polarity of regulated
output voltage.

Connection Diagram of LM 317 Regulators

The typical connection diagram of LM 317 regulator is shown in the Figure.

Thus, the output voltage is a function of R1 and R2. Keeping R1 fixed and varying
R2, the output voltage can be adjusted

Linear IC 723 Regulator

The popular general purpose precision regulator is Linear IC 723 Regulator. It is a

monolithic linear integrated circuit in different physical packages.

The pin diagram along with the various packages is shown in the Fig. 2.109 (a) and
(b)
Internal Structure of IC 723:

The functional block diagram of IC 723 can be divided into four major blocks

1. Temperature compensated voltage reference source, which is zener diode.

2. An op-amp circuit used as an error amplifier.
3. A series pass transistor capable of a 150mA output current.
4. Transistor used to limit output current.

The functioning of the above blocks can be explained with the help of a simplified
functional block diagram of IC 723 as shown in the Fig.
Temperature compensated zener diode, constant current source and reference
amplifier constitutes the reference element. In order to get a fixed voltage from
zener diode, the constant current source forces the zener to operate at a fixed point.

Output voltage is compared with this temperature compensated reference potential

of the order of 7 volts. For this Vref is connected to the non-inverting input of the
error amplifier.

This error amplifier is high gain differential amplifier. It’s inverting input is
connected to the either whole regulated output voltage or part of that from outside.
For later case a potential divider of two scaling resistors is used. Scaling resistors
help in getting multiplied reference voltage or scaled up reference voltage.

Error amplifier controls the series pass transistor Q1, which acts as variable
resistor. The series pass transistor is a small power transistor having about 800mW
dissipation. The unregulated power supply source (< 36Vd.c.) is connected to
collector of series pass transistor.

Transistor Q2 acts as current limiter in case of short circuit condition. It senses

drop across lc placed in series with regulated output voltage externally.
The frequency compensation terminal controls the frequency response of the error
amplifier. The required roll-off is obtained by connecting a small capacitor of 100
pF between frequency compensation and inverting input terminals.

Applications of Linear IC 723 Regulator

The various regular circuits as per the requirement can be achieved using IC723.
Some of them are discussed below:

1. Basic Low-voltage Regulator (Vo = 2 to 7 volts)

2. Basic Positive High Voltage Regulator

Basic Low voltage Regulator (Vo = 2 to 7 volts)

The resistor, Rsc is connected between CL and CS pins. The current limit transistor
remains non-conductive unless a drop across Rsc is 0.6 V (equal to VBE drop).
The value of Rsc can be found out by following equation

Ilimit can be selected as 1.2 to 1.5 times the maximum load circuit. Potential divider
made up of R1 and R2 is connected between Vref and non-inverting terminals.

As the series pass transistor is working as emitter follower.

R1 and R2 can be between 1 kΩ to 10 kΩ.

Basic Positive High Voltage Regulator:

The Basic Positive High Voltage Regulator is given by

For this type, output voltage varies from +7V to +37 V and IL ≤ 150 mA.

The non-inverting terminal connected to V ref through R3 . Due to this arrangement

the error amplifier acts as non-inverting amplifier.

The gain is

The output voltage is,

Opto-coupler

An optoisolator or an optocoupler is a device that transfers electrical signals

between two electrically isolated circuits through light energy. Opto-isolators
prevent the high voltages in one part of the circuit from affecting or destroying
other parts of the system.

Basic Construction of Optoisolator

Opto-isolator is a device, which has two diodes: One is a source or emitter of light,
usually a light emitting diode (LED) and other is photodiode acting as the
photosensor. The LED converts an electrical input signal into light, and the
photodiode detects incoming light and based on the incoming light either generates
corresponding electric energy. A basic optocoupler is shown below
The working principle of optoisolator is simple and interesting. The output signal
of one circuit can be controlled by varying input signal in another circuit, where
the two circuits are electrically isolated. A powerful light emitting diode (LED) is
connected across a variable voltage source. By adjusting the input voltage across
the LED, the intensity of the light emitted from the LED can be controlled. The
variable source and the LED form the input circuit of the optocoupler or opto
isolator.

A photodiode is present in front of the LED so that the light from the LED directly
strikes the junction of the photodiode. The photodiode is in reverse biased
condition. The reverse biased circuit of the photodiode forms the output circuit of
the system. It is also ensured that there is no other light falling on the photodiode
junction and the system is protected from any external light, except the light
coming from the LED. Initially, no voltage is applied to the LED; hence the LED
does not glow. In this condition as no light falls on the photodiode, there would be
only dark current flowing through the output circuit. Dark current is the reverse
saturation current of the reverse biased photodiode when it entire dark. This is the
unavoidable reverse leakage current of the diode. Now, if we increase the voltage
across the LED, the LED starts glowing and at same time intensity of the light
increases with increasing input voltage across the LED. With increasing light
intensity, the reverse current in the photodiode increases, since the reverse current
in a photodiode is linearly proportional to the intensity of light falling on the
photodiode junction. Also, if we decrease the intensity of light in the input, the
output photodiode current will decrease.
Data Converters
A data converter is an electronic circuit that converts data of one form to another.
There are two types of data converters −

 Digital to Analog Converter

 Analog to Digital Converter

A Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) converts a digital input signal into an analog output signal.
The digital signal is represented with a binary code, which is a combination of bits 0 and 1.

The block diagram of DAC is shown in the following figure −

A Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) consists of a number of binary inputs and a single output. In
general, the number of binary inputs of a DAC will be a power of two.

Types of DACs
There are two types of DACs

 Weighted Resistor DAC

 R-2R Ladder DAC

Weighted Resistor DAC

A weighted resistor DAC produces an analog output, which is almost equal to the digital
(binary) input by using binary weighted resistors in the inverting adder circuit. In short, a binary
weighted resistor DAC is called as weighted resistor DAC.
The circuit diagram of a 3-bit binary weighted resistor DAC is shown in the following figure −

Let the 3-bit binary input is b2b1b0. Here, the bits b2and b0 denote the Most Significant Bit
(MSB) and Least Significant Bit (LSB) respectively.
The digital switches shown in the above figure will be connected to ground, when the
corresponding input bits are equal to ‘0’. Similarly, the digital switches shown in the above
figure will be connected to the negative reference voltage, −VR when the corresponding input
bits are equal to ‘1’.
In the above circuit, the non-inverting input terminal of an op-amp is connected to ground.

According to the virtual short concept, the voltage at the inverting input terminal of opamp is
same as that of the voltage present at its non-inverting input terminal. So, the voltage at the
inverting input terminal’s node will be zero volts.
The nodal equation at the inverting input terminal’s node is:
Substituting, R=2Rf in above equation.

The above equation represents the output voltage equation of a 3-bit binary weighted resistor
DAC. Since the number of bits are three in the binary (digital) input, we will get seven possible
values of output voltage by varying the binary input from 000 to 111 for a fixed reference
voltage, VR.

R-2R Ladder DAC

The R-2R Ladder DAC overcomes the disadvantages of a binary weighted resistor DAC. As the
name suggests, R-2R Ladder DAC produces an analog output, which is almost equal to the
digital (binary) input by using a R-2R ladder network in the inverting adder circuit.
The circuit diagram of a 3-bit R-2R Ladder DAC is shown in the following figure
Let the 3-bit binary input is b2b1b0. Here, the bits b2 and b0 denote the Most Significant Bit
(MSB) and Least Significant Bit (LSB) respectively.
The digital switches shown in the above figure will be connected to ground, when the
corresponding input bits are equal to ‘0’. Similarly, the digital switches shown in above figure
will be connected to the negative reference voltage, −VR when the corresponding input bits
are equal to ‘1’.
It is difficult to get the generalized output voltage equation of a R-2R Ladder DAC. But, we can
find the analog output voltage values of R-2R Ladder DAC for individual binary input
combinations easily.
The advantages of a R-2R Ladder DAC are as follows −
 R-2R Ladder DAC contains only two values of resistor: R and 2R. So, it is easy to
select and design more accurate resistors.
 If more number of bits are present in the digital input, then we have to include
required number of R-2R sections additionally.
Due to the above advantages, R-2R Ladder DAC is preferable over binary weighted resistor DAC.