IC references are popular with circuit designers because they are accurate and exhibit low drift. Some of my future columns will cover the three types of IC references: buried zener, bandgap, and XFET ...

There are times when you need to bias a low-current load and simply didn’t want to add another voltage regulator, or where you need a reasonable level of voltage accuracy, so a simple voltage divider ...

My recent columns discussed the physics and applications of discrete-zener-diode references, and the conclusion they reached is that discrete zener diodes make poor references because of tolerance ...