Shunt Regulator Calculator

Design adjustable shunt regulators with resistor divider network and power dissipation analysis.

Design Parameters

V
V
mA
V
mA
mA

Series Resistor (Rs)

373 Ohm

R1 (top resistor)
10.00 k
R2 (bottom resistor)
10 k
Shunt Current (no load)
51.0 mA
Shunt Power (max)
255 mW

Additional Results

Resistor Power: 969 mWQuiescent Current: 1.3 mAEfficiency: 20.3%

Shunt Regulator Theory

Shunt regulators like the TL431 act as a programmable zener diode. The output voltage is set by a resistor divider: Vout = Vref x (1 + R1/R2). The shunt regulator sinks current to maintain the output voltage, with excess current flowing through the series resistor.

Vout = Vref x (1 + R1/R2)