A voltage reference is an electronic device that produces a fixed (constant) voltage irrespective of the loading on the device, power supply variations, temperature changes, and the passage of time. Voltage references are used in power supply voltage regulators, analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters, and myriad other measurement and control systems. Voltage references vary widely in performance; a regulator for a computer power supply may only hold its value to within a few per cent of the nominal value, whereas laboratory voltage standards have precisions and stability measured in parts per million.
Read more about Voltage Reference: In Metrology, Solid State Devices, Gas Filled Devices
Famous quotes containing the word reference:
“I think, for the rest of my life, I shall refrain from looking up things. It is the most ravenous time-snatcher I know. You pull one book from the shelf, which carries a hint or a reference that sends you posthaste to another book, and that to successive others. It is incredible, the number of books you hopefully open and disappointedly close, only to take down another with the same result.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)