AD581 10 V Reference Feeding a Light Load

About this circuit

# AD581 10 V Reference Feeding a Light Load ## Application This circuit uses AD581 Voltage Reference as a fixed 10 V reference for an ADC or DAC reference input. It is a practical operating-point check for input headroom, output voltage, and light-load behavior before the reference is placed in a larger measurement chain. ## Design Context VIN is set to 15 V on the left, U1 is the featured reference in the center, and RLOAD is connected from VOUT to the common bottom return bus on the right. Vin and Vout probes make the input supply and reference output visible in the operating-point table. ## Expected Behavior Vout should settle near 10 V. With RLOAD at 10K, the reference load current is about 1.0 mA, so the demo emphasizes a light steady-state reference load rather than load regulation limits. ## Key Values - VIN: 15 V DC input supply. - RLOAD: 10K reference load. - Expected output: about 10 V at Vout. - Simulation: DC operating point for steady-state reference behavior. ## Suggested Experiments - Change RLOAD to 4.7K or 100K and compare the Vout row. - Raise or lower VIN and observe when the model no longer maintains the expected reference output. - Use the Vout node as the reference input for an ADC, DAC, or comparator stage in a larger circuit. ## Featured Component AD581 Voltage Reference is the fixed-output voltage reference under test. The demo highlights its VIN, GND, and VOUT terminals in the standard series-reference application topology.