Peak Detector Effect in Low-Dropout Regulators

The peak detector effect is a phenomenon that makes single event transients much longer once an error amplifier switches from linear to saturation zone due to the presence of external capacitors. This is so-called since it was discovered in a simple voltage reference in which a parasitic lossy peak detector was unwillingly built in the output stage. In this paper, peak detector effect is generalized to explain the appearance of long duration pulses in typical low dropout voltage regulator built with discrete devices. This effect has been related to the way in which the negative feedback loop is closed and to the kind of pass device in the output stage. Thus, if the linear voltage regulator consists in an error amplifier the output of which controls a current source, the peak detector effect will occur if the current source is unidirectional, the output load does not drain enough current and is in parallel with an external capacitor.