During a discussion about an add-on for upgrading 317/337 regulators, a question has surfaced:
Would it possible to design a "superreg" using only 12 components or less, preferably all discretes?
Here is an answer (to be taken with of pinch of salt, and in the spirit of Christmas magic, something that participants to the previous thread seem to have missed).
This example uses 11 discretes, and outperforms a cap-fitted 317 on all key parameters (without using any cap).
Does it qualify as a superreg?
Certainly not by today's standards, and the DC stability is approximate because of a crude, first-order temperature compensation, but the central question was noise-related, and it does not perform too poorly in this regard (and there is a lot of room for improvements, since the circuit is based on the <12 components constraint, and no cap).
May I remind everyone that this site is named DIYaudio, and members like to fiddle with creative, cheerful and unorthodox solutions (which is not synonymous with worthless), which is why I post this circuit.
Grinches, etc., please don't look further and move along....
Here is the PSRR of the basic circuit: ~80dB
This is the output impedance: ~1.6mΩ
The measured noise, in a 10Hz to 10kHz bandwidth varies between ~2µV and 4µV, depending on the LED used and the error amplifier transistor.
The most favorable combination (I only made a limited number of tests) is an old Siemens green LED (CQ-something) and a BC337-40 resulting in ~2µV, and if the LED and transistor are from 6N139 coupler (an attractive solution because of the thermal tracking, the single component and the good temperature compensation), this becomes ~2.5µV.
It is possible to compensate some of the parasitic parameters like Early effect to the first order by adding some tweaks.
The practical range of this type of tweak cannot exceed one order of magnitude, ~20dB: beyond, the adjustment become too sensitive to be of practical use, but for DIY applications, 20dB is realistic.
Here is the result with tweaks active (becomes >12 components, of course)/
Note that R3 is not a physical component: it simply materializes the order of the components on the output track: R5 needs to be upstream of D1.
It is important to note that the circuit is not self-starting: this can be seen as an advantage or a drawback, depending on the application.
In a previous example, I have used this as a "feature".
Disclaimer:
The circuit in its present condition is suboptimal in many respects: its main purpose is to deliver nice figures within the 11 discretes constraint, and although it works (I had to make actual measurements on the breadboarded version), I certainly do not recommend using it in its raw state.
It could become really useful with only cheap and minor amendments/additions, but it will probably remain unable to beat the best silicon $£€ can buy, made by the top foundries.
I will discuss later the practical adjustments required if the circuit has to be used in the real world, by people that do not necessarily have access to Farnell, Mouser, etc. and for whom a 317 is already a kind of luxury (2/3rd of the world population?)