15V 10 Amp Voltage Regulator Circuit Using IC LM196

The following article explains a linear voltage regulator power supply circuit using the IC LM196 which is capable of handling up to 10 amps of current and is able to provide a variable voltage right from 1.25V to 15V DC.

About the IC LM196 or LM396

The IC LM 196 is single chip versatile, high performance regulator device which can be configured to provide an adjustable voltage output of 1.25V to 15V or even further at currents in excess of 10 amps.

It is a single chip solution for all electronic circuit applications which involve or require regulated DC up to 10 amps.

That means now you can carry on heavy duty voltage operations as per your personal preference using this easy to build single chip circuit

Many of my earlier posts have discussed circuits involving a similar IC, the LM338, which is also capable of providing similar features, but cannot handle above 5 amps, the LM196 on the other hand overcomes this limitation of LM338 and goes further by adding 5 amps more to the specs.

Main Specifications

The main features of this adjustable 15V 10 amp voltage regulator IC may be summarized as follows:

1. Output custom tailored at +/-0.8V
2. Minutely adjustable voltage right from 1.25V to 15V DC
3. Guaranteed output current that's not below 10 amps
4. Verified with P+ product enhancement testing
5. Maximum power dissipation not exceeding 70 watts even at full load.
6. Output internally protected against over load and short circuit
7. Device internally protected against thermal run away or thermal break down situations.
8. Output voltage supply guaranteed even under worst case scenarios such as adjustment pin disconnected.

NOTE: Although the IC is specified to produce between 1.25 V and 15 V, the datasheet also says that getting higher output voltages than 15 V is possible, as long as the input/output differential is not exceeded.

The input/output differential is specified at 20 V.

This implies that the IC can be adjusted to generate higher voltages at the output as long as the 20 V input/output difference is not exceeded.

Pin out details of LM196

As given in the following diagram, from bottom with the larger area of the metal downward, the pin outs of the IC LM196 may be identified as follows:

1. Right pin = Adjustment pin
2. Left Pin = Output pin.
3. Case or Body = Input

10 Amp Power Supply Circuit Using IC LM196 or LM396

The standard 10 amp voltage regulator circuit diagram using the IC LM196 can be witnessed in the following figure.

The calculations of the resistors are similar to that of IC LM338 or LM317. R2 may be adjusted to get the required regulated voltage at the output.

All the ground terminals involved in the circuit must be fixed with the main input ground which will be obviously the negative point of the bridge rectifier (not shown here). Similarly, the positive to the load must be directly acquired from the relevant lead of the IC.

The ground and the positive is taken from the main nodes due to the involvement of high currents with the circuit. As current increases, the conductor proportionately offers more resistance to the flow of the current which results in voltage drops at the output and hence  unnecessary lengths of tracks should be avoided.