voltage divider

[′vōl·tij di‚vīd·ər]

(electricity)

A tapped resistor, adjustable resistor, potentiometer, or a series arrangement of two or more fixed resistors connected across a voltage source; a desired fraction of the total voltage is obtained from the intermediate tap, movable contact, or resistor junction. Also known as potential divider.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Voltage Divider

an electrical device for dividing a DC or AC voltage into parts. All voltage dividers consist of reactances or effective resistances.

Voltage dividers are usually used to measure voltage. At low voltages series-connected resistors (Figure l,a) are used.

Figure 1. Circuits of low-voltage voltage dividers: (a) resistive, (b) capacitive, (c) inductive; (u) and (U) voltages, (r) and (R) resistances, (C₁) and (C₂) capacitances, (L₁) and (L₂) inductances

Capacitive voltage dividers with fixed or variable capacitors (Figure l,b), as well as induction voltage dividers (Figure l,c), are used for alternating currents. Capacitive voltage dividers, which consist of several series-connected high-accuracy capacitors (Figure 2), are used in electric power

Figure 2. Circuit of a high-voltage voltage divider: (U), (U₁), and (U₂) voltages; (SG) spark gap; (R) reactor; (T) transformer, (V) volt-meter

engineering to take off small amounts of power from a high-voltage transmission line (up to 500 kilovolts). An autotransformer is an example of an inductive voltage divider.

N. G. VOSTROKNUTOV

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References in periodicals archive

To ensure consistency of the data stream the 548ADC ref+ line can be connected to the 5V supply rail rather than a voltage divider. In this way the maximum analogue output of the solar cell will not approach more than half of the 5 V maximum reference level so that if a signal greater than 128 is received by the logger computer, it will be known to have been caused by a communication synchronisation error and can be ignored.

Sunlight and solar cells: teaching digital design and communication through the development of a simple monitoring station

Resistors CMP33 and CMP40 form the voltage divider. The divided down voltage can be applied to the gate terminal of the HEMT through the necessary RF isolation circuitry or an external feedback path may be created, which could lead to an oscillation condition.

DESIGN OF SMALL-SIGNAL AMPLIFIERS USING HP MDS: PART II

8 shows the electrical circuit with the use of a high-voltage capacitive voltage divider of the type CDV-1,2, designed to form a non-standard commutation aperiodic pulse of a time shape of 250 [micro]s/5000 [micro]s of amplitude up to [+ or -]1 MV in the long air gap between the electrodes [E.sub.1] (disk) and [E.sub.2] (rod) [16].

THE METROLOGY SUPPORT IN UKRAINE OF TESTS OF OBJECTS OF ENERGY, AVIATION AND SPACE-ROCKET ENGINEERING ON RESISTIBILITY TO ACTION OF PULSES OF CURRENT (VOLTAGE) OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING AND COMMUTATION PULSES OF VOLTAGE

An example of a voltage divider consists of two resistors in series or a potentiometer.

Design of PSO based buck boost converter for PV based inverter system

where [R.sub.0] is the memristance of the stored state and [R.sub.s] is the series resistance (30 K[OMEGA]) of the memristor voltage divider circuit, [V.sub.MEM] is the memristive voltage.

Quantitative Analysis of Memristance Defined Exponential Model for Multi-bits Titanium Dioxide Memristor Memory Cell

Traditionally voltage is measured by means of inductive instrument transformers or capacitive voltage dividers. Such transformers have been state of the art for many decades but have also a number of drawbacks.

Growth and characterization of single crystalline [Bi.sub.4][Ge.sub.3][O.sub.12] fibers for electrooptic high voltage sensors

The two driven motor windings form a voltage divider. Knowing that the impedance variations will cause the center node to vary, our technique compares this center node to the reference voltage.

Eliminating the reel motor position sensor in a tape drive

Initially these two FETs were both connected to the control voltage through a 4:1 voltage divider that reduces the 2 V control voltage swing to about 0.5 V.

A dual-mode CDMA/FM driver amplifier for cellular applications

[ZD.sub.n] are Zener diodes of the D818D type; [R.sub.LV] is the resistance of the resistive voltage divider.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SPECIALIZED SINGLE-PHASE HIGH VOLTAGE DOUBLER RECTIFIER

Measurement of peak value of voltage lightning impulse is achieved in the system using a resistive voltage divider and peak value meter.

Measurement Techniques Used for Study of Electrical Discharge Mechanisms in Insulating Ester Fluids under Lightning Impulse