Constant Current Diode 2014-04-03

[Val Gretchev]

Val Gretchev submitted a new article:

Constant Current Diode - A component that is often overlooked.

I want to discuss a component that does not get a lot of publicity in the electronics world. I am talking about the constant current diode. Perhaps some of you are not aware that there is such a device. It is certainly difficult to procure and only a few distributors carry it in stock. Mouser.com is one distributor where you may be able to obtain constant current diodes at various current values.
A constant current diode does exactly as is implied: it provides a constant current between a...

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[Rich D.]

Cool stuff there. Although I haven't seen a lot of it mentioned either, the FET & resistor shown is something I like to use in circuits sometimes. It's great for its ability to charge a capacitor with a linearly increasing/decreasing voltage instead of the log curve. It makes it easy to control charge times and use voltage ramps for signal generation: triangle and sawtooth waveforms.
I think it's awesome that you can now get this function in a single diode!