Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Is there a minimum output current for voltage regulators?


I need both 4.5V and 3.3V for a project, and my idea was to power it using a single battery and a voltage regulator. A regulator I found (MCP1700) has an output current of 200 mA, but I'm only going to pull 3-4 mA. Is that large difference a problem in any way? I couldn't find that information in the data sheet.



Answer



Note this line in your datasheet:


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There's no minimum load current, but if the load current is below 100 uA, there's no guarantee how well the regulator will be able to maintain the output voltage.



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