SNVS774Q May 2004 – June 2020 LM117 , LM317-N
PRODUCTION DATA.
The LM317-N is capable of providing extremely good load regulation but a few precautions are needed to obtain maximum performance. The current set resistor, R1, must be connected near the output terminal of the regulator rather than near the load. If R1 is placed too far from the output terminal, then the increased trace resistance, RS, will cause an error voltage drop in the adjustment loop and degrade load regulation performance. Therefore, R1 must be placed as close as possible to the output terminal to minimize RS and maximize load regulation performance.
Figure 16 shows the effect of the trace resistance, RS, when R1 is placed far from the output terminal of the regulator. It is clear that RS will cause an error voltage drop especially during higher current loads, so it is important to minimize the RS trace resistance by keeping R1 close to the regulator output terminal.
With the TO-3 package, it is easy to minimize the resistance from the case to the set resistor, by using two separate leads to the case. However, with the TO package, care must be taken to minimize the wire length of the output lead. The ground of R2 can be returned near the ground of the load to provide remote ground sensing and improve load regulation.