integrated voltage regulators (1)

Variations in power supply voltage can have a detrimental effect on the functioning of many electronic circuits. In such cases provision of a stable, ripple-free supply voltage is essential. Until a few years ago voltage regulators were designed almost exclusively using discrete components, but in the past couple of years there has been a proliferation of integrated circuit voltage regulators, so that for many applications it is hardly worth designing a power supply with discrete components. In addition, IC regulators usually offer significant cost reduction. The first part of this article deals with IC regulators in general, and with the universal precision voltage regulator type 723 in detail. Part 2 deals with `three- legged` fixed-voltage regulators.