Experiment 5 -Increased Output Voltage with Diode

For most practical applications you find a suitable regulator. Nevertheless, it can happen that for a required voltage there is no regulator is available ...

The voltage regulators 78xx are all working with a fixed output voltage. However, with a trick you can still coax them other voltages. For this you deceive the voltage regulator with a false zero potential.

For example with the diode 1N914, which has a forward voltage of V_F = 0.7 V hat...

Circuit diagram voltage regulator with Vout = 5.7 Volt.

Circuit voltage regulator with Vout = 5.7 Volt. (Enlarge)

Now your voltage regulator 7805 has the output voltage V_out = 5.7 Volt.

Do you need smaller steps, you use Schottky diodes with a forward voltage ofV_F = 0.2 V.

Larger steps can be achieved using Zener diodes...