Analog Circuit Design

5

LT1070 design manual

Carl Nelson

Introduction

Three terminal monolithic linear voltage regulators appeared almost 20 years ago, and were almost immediately successful for a variety of reasons. In particular, there were relatively few engineers capable of designing a good linear voltage regulator. The new devices were also easy to use, and inexpensive. In currently popular parlance they were “expert systems,” containing a good deal of their designer’s knowledge in silicon form. Because of these advantages, the regulators quickly eclipsed discrete and earlier monolithic building blocks and dominated the market.

More recently, there has been increasing interest in switching-based regulators. Switching regulators, with their high efficiency and small ...