APPLICATION NOTE
1.0 External Capacitors/Stability
1.1 Input Bypass Capacitor
An input capacitor is recommended. A10µF tantalum on the
input is a suitable input bypassing for almost all applications.
1.2 Adjust Terminal Bypass Capacitor
The adjust terminal can be bypassed to ground with a bypass capacitor (C
ADJ
) to improve ripple rejection. This bypass capacitor prevents ripple from being amplified as the
output voltage is increased. At any ripple frequency, the impedance of the C
ADJ
should be less than R1 to prevent the
ripple from being amplified:
(2π*f
RIPPLE*CADJ
)<R1
The R1 is the resistor between the output and the adjust pin.
Its value is normally in the range of 100-200Ω. For example,
with R1=124Ω and f
RIPPLE
=120Hz, the C
ADJ
should be
>
11µF.
1.3 Output Capacitor
The output capacitor iscriticalin maintaining regulator stability, and must meet the required conditions for both minimum
amount of capacitance and ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance). The minimum output capacitance required by the
LM1117 is 10µF, ifatantalum capacitor is used.Any increase
of the output capacitance will merely improve the loop stability and transient response. The ESR of the output capacitor
should be less than 0.5Ω. In the case of the adjustable regulator, when the C
ADJ
is used, a larger output capacitance
(22µf tantalum) is required.
2.0 Output Voltage
The LM1117 adjustable version develops a 1.25V reference
voltage, V
REF
, between the output and the adjust terminal.
As shown in
Figure 1
, this voltage is applied across resistor
R1 to generate a constant current I1. The current I
ADJ
from
the adjust terminal could introduce error to the output. But
since it is very small (60µA) compared with the I1 and very
constant with line and load changes, the error can be ignored. The constant current I1 then flows through the output
set resistor R2 and sets the output voltage to the desired
level.
For fixed voltage devices, R1 and R2 are integrated inside
the devices.
3.0 Load Regulation
The LM1117 regulates the voltage that appears between its
output and ground pins, or between its output and adjust
pins. In some cases, line resistances can introduce errors to
the voltage across the load. To obtain the best load regulation, a few precautions are needed.
Figure 2
, shows a typical application using a fixed output
regulator. The Rt1 and Rt2 are the line resistances. It is obvious that the V
LOAD
is less than the V
OUT
by the sum of the
voltage drops along the line resistances. In this case, the
load regulation seen at the R
LOAD
would be degraded from
the data sheet specification. To improve this, the load should
be tied directly totheoutputterminal on the positive side and
directly tied to the ground terminal on the negative side.
When the adjustable regulator is used (
Figure 3
), the best
performance is obtained with the positive side of the resistor
R1 tied directly to the output terminal of the regulator rather
than near theload.This eliminates line drops from appearing
effectively in series with the reference and degrading regulation. For example, a 5V regulator with 0.05Ω resistance between the regulator and load will have a load regulation due
to line resistance of 0.05Ω xI
L
. If R1 (=125Ω) is connected
near the load, the effective line resistance will be 0.05Ω
(1+R2/R1) or in this case, it is 4 times worse. In addition, the
ground side of the resistor R2 can be returned near the
ground of the load toprovideremoteground sensing and improve load regulation.
4.0 Protection Diodes
Under normal operation, the LM1117 regulators do not need
any protection diode. With the adjustable device, the internal
resistance between the adjust andoutputterminalslimits the
current. No diode is needed to divert the current around the
regulator even with capacitor on the adjust terminal. The adjust pin can take a transient signal of
±
25V with respect to
the output voltage without damaging the device.
When a output capacitor is connected to a regulator and the
input is shortedtoground, the output capacitor will discharge
DS100919-17
FIGURE 1. Basic Adjustable Regulator
DS100919-18
FIGURE 2. Typical Application using Fixed Output
Regulator
DS100919-19
FIGURE 3. Best Load Regulation using Adjustable
Output Regulator
LM1117
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