Maintaining power - Sponsored Tutorial
Understanding low dropout regulators. By Jerome Patoux.
Voltage regulators are used to provide a stable power supply voltage independent of load impedance, input voltage variations, temperature, and time. Low dropout regulators – or LDOs – are distinguished by their ability to maintain regulation with small differences between supply voltage and load voltage.
In portable applications, LDOs can maintain the system voltage independently of the state of battery charge. Any equipment that needs constant and stable voltage, while minimising the upstream supply (or working with wide fluctuations in upstream supply), is also a candidate for LDOs. Typical examples include circuitry with digital and RF loads.
