TI just discontinued my favorite voltage reference, the LM329. I bought another 250 so I can use them in protos forever, but no more in production designs. :(
Being basically the guts of an LM399 minus the heater and fancy package, they're a good 20 dB quieter than bandgaps, and super cheap while they're still available.
Razza frazza sfmmfmmgn....bastards.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
Sorry for you, Phil. I feel your pain.
Linear Technology makes them as well:
From a very reliable source I heard that they call just about every customer they know of that ever used it before they would discontinue something. That sort of design secuirty comes at a price though.
Good point, thanks. They're more expensive, but on the other hand it's the C (for Crap) grade rather than the D (for Disgusting) grade. (I still have some A grade ones in my drawer from long ago.)
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
It looks as if Digi-Key is carrying both the B and C grades of the LT parts, at the same price.
If you can still get LM399s, then just use them without connecting the heater terminals.
Jon
For the price of an LM399, I can get much swoopier references than an LM329.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
I like the LM4140, ssems to have low noise, which I need in a few apps. I have no idea what the long-term stability is.
Jon
ADIs ADR series is very nice. Sort of a jfet based bandgap.
Very "sort of". Some of the ADR parts are real band-gaps, and some are XFET devices. The XFET parts were novel - and patented - when they were introduced, and do seem to be quiet for a low voltage reference.
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