Application information

LM134-LM234-LM334

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4

Application information

4.1

Slew rate

At slew rates above a threshold (see Figure 4 and Figure 5), the LM134, LM234, LM334 can

have a non-linear current characteristic. The slew rate at which this takes place is directly

Slew rates of more than 1V/µs do not damage the circuit nor do they produce high currents.

4.2

Thermal effects

increase the junction temperature by

temperature coefficient of about 0.33%/°C. Thus the change in current due to the increase

in temperature will be (0.4) (0.33) = 0.132%. This is a degradation of 10 : 1 in regulation

versus the true electrical effects. Thermal effects should be taken into account when d.c.

4.3

Shunt capacitance

In certain applications, the 15pF value for the shunt capacitance should be reduced:

●

because of loading problems,

●

because of limitation of output impedance of the current source in a.c. applications.

You can easily reduce the capacitance by adding a FET as shown in Typical applications on

page 8.

The value of this capacitance can be reduced by at least 3pF and regulation can be

improved by an order of magnitude without any modifications of the d.c. characteristics

(except for the minimum input voltage).

4.4

Noise

The current noise produced by LM134, LM234, and LM334 is about 4 times that of a

transistor. If the LM134, LM234, LM334 is used as an active load for a transistor amplifier,

the noise at the input will increase by about 12dB. In most cases this is acceptable, and a

single amplifier can be built with a voltage gain higher than 2000.

4.5

Lead resistance

The sense voltage which determines the current of the LM134, LM234, LM334 is less than

100mV. At this level, the thermocouple effects and the connection resistance should be

reduced by locating the current setting resistor close to the device. Do not use sockets for

the ICs. A contact resistance of 0.7

Ωis sufficient to decrease the output current by 1% at the

1mA level.