IC references are popular with circuit designers because they are accurate and exhibit low drift. Some of my future columns will cover the three types of IC references: buried zener, bandgap, and XFET ...

Zeners are commonly used as low-current sources for bias voltage functions, but the proper voltage reference can give the same result and with much-lower dissipation and no performance tradeoffs.

I need a circuit to limit the voltage across some dissipation limited devices. It must: limit the voltage to a maximum of 1.5 V, have symmetrical limiting, be capable of accepting a current of 2 A, ...