Finally!

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I told these guys to do this, like, two years ago. But they used two resistors, and I told them to use one.

John

Reply to
John Larkin
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Neat. Kinda expensive, though (what from LT isn't). A mirror on that would be useful, too.

Reply to
krw

Yikes, I hadn't noticed the price. That's silly.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

...

at would

Remember, you are seeing the simplified circuit. When you have protection circuitry, it has to be more complicated. And then nobody of any significance pays published prices.

Reply to
miso

Minimum load current of half a mA is a bit high for many applications.. you'd think they could do better with two resistors.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

In the world of discrete's, how much usage would it see? ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

Yes, it needs work. But this is the first programmable current source IC that I know of, and it's been an obvious need for a long time. You could cascode this into an RF transistor and make fast ramps without a zillion parts.

Now maybe TI and OnSemi will do better ones for 15 cents or something.

I sometimes use the small Supertex depletion fets for this. Idss runs around 1.6 mA, and a source resistor will drop that to very low values. But current tolerance is not very good.

A multiple-output current source would be cute, too.

John

Reply to
John Larkin

[snip]

Once upon a time TI had a whole set of current mirrors. AFAIK, no more :-( ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

How about an LM13700 and a resistor? You can have whichever polarity output you like.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Only one polarity, not very accurate and stupidly expensive, but they still have this one :

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The old TI ones were these:

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NPN only also, IIRC.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

I can use this sort of thing, but evidently I'm in the minority since monolithic arrays are going away and Darlingtons are dead. I got away with the MMBT3904 adjacent die parts last time around but my requirements aren't stringent for that circuit. We have another product that we had to do a one-time buy on a Zetex part because the product is dead without it and I'm not sure we *can* design around it (we certainly can't afford a chip). Maybe no one in the discrete world knows how to use current mirrors anymore.

Reply to
krw

0.5% Would imply trimming every die... that would be the expense... otherwise dime store parts.

What kind of tolerances do people really need? ...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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Reply to
Jim Thompson

$3.50 a copy is not dime store. If I used such a thing it wouldn't be onesy/twosy, either.

I don't need that kind of tolerance (fortunately). 1% and $.15 would make me more than happy. ;-) LM385s are in the $.25 range.

Reply to
krw

Well, some people cannot count to one; once they get in gear for counting it is TWO late...

Reply to
Robert Baer

..

There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that understand binary is not always the answer to a problem, and those that do not....

Steve

Reply to
osr

The 'whole set' lacked PNP mirrors, but included 1:1 through 1:4 and a part with multiple emitters that spanned 3:1 to 1:15

Never saw one, but they're in the old 1984-vintage linear catalog.

Reply to
whit3rd

I still have a few left.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

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