7805 Circuit Analysis

Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever
Reverse engineering a counterfeit

7805 voltage regulator
Update: It turns out my 7805 isn't counterfeit. eclectro did

an in-depth search (details on reddit) and found an old
7805 datasheet from Thomson Semiconductors that
exactly matches my chip. And Thomson is the T in
STMicroelectronics. So that explains how this die ended up
with a ST label.
Under a microscope, a silicon chip is a mysterious world with

puzzling shapes and meandering lines zigzagging around, as in
the magnified image of a 7805 voltage regulator below. But if
you study the chip closely, you can identify the transistors,
resistors, diodes, and capacitors that make it work and even
understand how these components function together. This
article explains how the 7805 voltage regulator works, all the
way down to how the transistors on the silicon operate. And
while exploring the chip, I discovered that it is probably
counterfeit.
Reverse engineering a <del>counterfeit</del> 7805 voltage regulator https://www.righto.com/2014/09/reverse-engineering-counterfeit-7805.html
The
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history of
the Intel
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Apple
iPhone
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teardown:
quality in a
tiny expensive package
A dozen
USB
chargers in
the lab:
Apple is
very good, but not quite
the best
A Multi-
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Die photograph of a 7805 voltage regulator. Click to enlarge. the Arduino
A voltage regulator takes an unregulated input voltage and

converts it to the exact regulated voltage an electronic circuit Search This Blog
requires. Voltage regulators are used in almost every electronic
Search
circuit, and the popular 7805 has been used everywhere from
computers [1] to satellites, from DVD player and video games to
Arduinos [2]. and robots. Even though it was introduced in 1972
and more advanced regulators [3] are now available, the 7805 is
still in use, especially with hobbyists.
The 7805 is a common type of regulator known as a linear

regulator. (As its name hints, the 7805 produces 5 volts.) A
linear regulator is built around a large transistor that controls
the amount of power flowing to the output, acting similar to a
variable resistor. (This transistor is visible in the right half of the
die photo above.) A drawback of a linear regulator is that all the
"extra" voltage gets converted into heat. If you put 9 volts into a
linear regulator and get 5 volts out, the extra 4 volts gets turned
into heat in the regulator, so the regulator is only about 56%
efficient. (The main competitor to a linear regulator is a
switching power supply - a much more efficient, but much more
complicated way to produce regulated voltage. Switching power
supplies have replaced linear regulators in many applications,
such as phone chargers and computer power supplies.)
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A 7805 voltage regulator in a metal TO-3 package. The 7805 is more commonly
found in a smaller plastic package.
Linear regulators such as the 7805 became very popular

because they are extremely easy to use: just feed the
unregulated voltage into one pin, ground the second pin, and
get regulated voltage out the third pin [4]. Another feature that
made the 7805 popular is it is almost indestructible - if you
short-circuit it, put too much voltage in, or run it too hot, it will
shut down before getting damaged, due to internal protection
circuits.
The components of the integrated circuit

Like most chips, the 7805 is built from a tiny piece of silicon. To
make the chip function, a process called doping treats regions
of the silicon with elements such as phosphorus or boron. In
the die photo, these regions have a slightly different color,
which makes the structure of the chip visible. Phosphorus gives
the region excess electrons (i.e. negative), so it is known as N
silicon. Boron has the opposite effect, creating positive P Labels
silicon. The amount of doping in a silicon chip is surprisingly
small, varying from 1 foreign atom for every thousand atoms of 6502 8085 8086
silicon down to one foreign atom per billion atoms of silicon. alto analog
Apollo apple arc arduino
Because silicon is so sensitive to impurities, the original silicon
arm bitcoin
wafer must be an insanely pure crystal, up to 99.999999999%
chips
pure - a level known as eleven nines.
On top of the silicon, a thin layer of metal connects different electronics

parts of the chip. This metal is clearly visible in the die photo as
white traces and regions. [5] A thin, glassy silicon dioxide layer ibm ibm1401
provides insulation between the metal and the silicon, except intel ir
where rectangular contact holes in the silicon dioxide allow the math microcode
metal to connect to the silicon. Around the edge of the chip, thin power supply
wires connect the metal pads to the chip's external pins - the random reverse-
black blobs in the photo show where the wires were attached.
engineering
snark space
Transistors inside the IC
teardown
Transistors are the key components in the chip. The 7805 uses
NPN and PNP bipolar transistors (unlike digital chips which
usually have CMOS transistors). If you've studied electronics,
you've probably seen a diagram of a NPN transistor like the
one below, showing the collector (C), base (B), and emitter (E) 2023 (28)
of the transistor, The transistor is illustrated as a sandwich of P 2022 (18)
silicon in between two symmetric layers of N silicon; the N-P-N
2021 (26)
layers make a NPN transistor. It turns out that transistors on a
chip look nothing like this, and the base often isn't even in the 2020 (33)
middle! 2019 (18)
2018 (17)
2017 (21)
2016 (34)
2015 (12)
2014 (13)
December (1)
October (1)
September (3)
Mining Bitcoin with
An NPN transistor and its oversimplified structure. pencil and paper:
0.67 hashes ...
The photo below shows one of the transistors in the 7805 as it
Why the Z-80's data
appears on the chip. [6] The different brown and purple colors pins are scrambled
are regions of silicon that has been doped differently, forming N
Reverse engineering a
and P regions. The gray areas are the metal layer of the chip counterfeit 7805
on top of the silicon - these form the wires connecting to the voltage reg...
collector, emitter, and base.
May (2)
March (1)
February (5)
2013 (24)
2012 (10)
2011 (11)
2010 (22)
2009 (22)
2008 (27)
Structure of a NPN transistor inside the 7805 voltage regulator.
Underneath the photo is a cross-section drawing showing

approximately how the transistor is constructed. There's a lot
more than just the N-P-N sandwich you see in books, but if you
look carefully at the vertical cross section below the 'E', you can
find the N-P-N that forms the transistor. The emitter (E) wire is
connected to N+ silicon. Below that is a P layer connected to
the base contact (B). And below that is a N+ layer connected
(indirectly) to the collector (C). [7] The transistor is surrounded by
4 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
a P+ ring that isolates it from neighboring components.
Resistors inside the IC

Resistors are a key component of analog chips and are formed
from strips of silicon doped to have high resistance. The photo
below shows two resistors in the 7805 voltage regulator, formed
from greenish-purple strips of P silicon. (The gray metals strips
connect to the resistors at the square contacts and wire the
resistors to other parts of the chip.) The value of the resistor is
proportional to its length [8], so the short resistor on the right
(850Ω) is smaller than the meandering resistor on the left
(4000Ω). Resistors with large values take up an inconveniently
large area on the chip - in the top left of the die photo you can
see the serpentine path of an 80KΩ resistor.
Two resistors on the 7805 voltage regulator's silicon die.
How the 7805 works

I've colored the following schematic [9] to indicate the main
blocks of the 7805 regulator. The heart of the 7805 chip is a
large transistor that controls the current between the input and
output, and thus controls the output voltage. This transistor
(Q16) is red on the diagram below. On the die, it takes up most
of the right half of the chip because it needs to handle over 1
amp of current.
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Components of the 7805 regulator: bandgap (yellow), error amp (orange),

output transistor (red), protection (purple), startup (green).
The bandgap reference (yellow) is what keeps the voltage

stable. It takes the scaled output voltage as input (Q1 and Q6),
and provides an error signal (to Q7) indicating if the voltage is
too high or too low. The key feature of the bandgap is it
provides a stable and accurate reference, even as the chip's
temperate changes. The next section will discuss the bandgap
in detail.
The error signal from the bandgap reference is amplified by the

error amplifier (orange). The amplified signal controls the output
transistor through large driver Q15. This closes the negative
feedback loop that controls the output voltage. The startup
circuit (green) provides initial current to the bandgap circuit, so
it doesn't get stuck in an off state. [10] The circuits in purple
provide protection against overheating (Q13), excessive input
voltage (Q19), and excessive output current (Q14). If there is a
fault, these circuits reduce the output current or shut down the
regulator, protecting it from damage.
The voltage divider (blue) scales down the voltage on the

output pin for use by the bandgap reference. It has an
interesting implementation that allows different chips in the
78XX family to produce different voltages. (For instance 12
volts from the 7812 and 24 volts from the 7824.) The image
below shows the square contacts between the metal (white)
and the resistor (turquoise) that control the values of R20 and
R21. For a different regulator, a simple change to the position of
the variable contact increases the resistance of R20 and thus
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the output voltage of the chip.
The feedback voltage divider inside the 7805 voltage regulator consists of two
resistors.
How a bandgap reference works

The main problem with producing a stable voltage from an IC is
the chip's parameters change as temperature changes: it's no
good if your 5 volt phone charger starts producing 3 or 7 volts
on a hot day. The trick to building a stable voltage reference is
to create one voltage that goes down with temperature and
another than goes up with temperature. If you add them
together correctly, you get a voltage that is stable with
temperature. This circuit is called a "bandgap reference".
To create a voltage that goes down with temperature, you put a

constant current through the transistor and look at the voltage
between the base and emitter, called VBE. The graph below
shows how this voltage drops as the temperature increases. At
the left, the line hits the bandgap voltage of silicon, about 1.2
volts; this will be important later.
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Vbe vs temperature for a transistor
If you set up a second transistor this way but with a lower

current [11], you get the same effect but the voltage VBE curve
drops faster. This may not seem helpful since we need a
voltage that goes up with temperature. But here's the trick: if
you subtract the two VBE voltages, the difference increases as
temperature increases, since the lines get farther apart. The
difference is called ΔVBE. The graph below shows the VBE
curves for two different transistors, and you can see how the
difference ΔVBE between the curves increases with
temperature, even though both curves decrease with
temperature.
Voltages in a bandgap reference: Vbe for two transistors as temperature

changes.
The final step to a bandgap reference is to combine VBE and

ΔVBE in the right ratio so the result is constant with
temperature. It turns out that if the values sum to the bandgap
voltage, the drop in VBE and the increase in ΔVBE cancel out.
In the graph below, adding 10 copies of ΔVBE is the right ratio;
the exact ratio depends on the particular transistors. The
important thing to notice in the graph below is that as the
temperature changes, VBE+nΔVBE remains constant - the top
of the of purple ΔVBEs remains at the bandgap voltage.
8 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
By adding multiples of ΔVbe to Vbe, the bandgap voltage is reached regardless

of temperature. [12]
How the 7805's bandgap reference works

The 7805's bandgap reference uses the above bandgap
principles, but there are several important differences. First, the
bandgap voltage in practice turns out to be about 1.25 volts
instead of 1.2. Second, the 7805's bandgap creates a larger
(and thus more accurate) 2ΔVBE by taking the difference
between two high-current VBEs and two low-current VBEs.
Finally, 2ΔVBE is scaled and added to three VBEs to form three
times the bandgap voltage, or about 3.75V.
The diagram below shows the 7805's bandgap circuit with

arrows showing voltage changes (not currents). Starting at
ground, the red arrow shows an increase of (large) VBE across
Q3, and another (large)VBE across Q2. The green arrows show
drops of (small) VBE across Q4 and Q5. The result is the
difference 2ΔVBE ends up across R6.
The next step is very important as it scales up the voltage. The

current through R7 will be the same as the current through R6
(ignoring small base currents). But R7 is 16.5 times as large as
R6, so by Ohm's law, the voltage across R7 will be 16.5 times
as large, i.e. 33ΔVBE.
Finally, we can see the bandgap's voltage by looking at the

purple lines. Starting at ground, the voltage goes up by VBE
across Q8, another VBE across Q7, then the R7 voltage, and
finally a third VBE across Q6. Assuming the chip designers
picked the scale factor of 33 correctly, the final voltage will be
three bandgap voltages, or 3.75V. [13] (Vin here is the voltage
input to the bandgap, not the voltage input to the 7805.)
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How the bandgap voltage is generated in the 7805 voltage regulator.
A traditional bandgap circuit generates a stable reference

voltage, but discussions of bandgaps usually ignore a big issue:
in devices such as the 7805 or the TL431, the bandgap circuit
does not generating a stable reference voltage. Instead, the
7805's bandgap works "backwards". The 7805's scaled output
voltage provides the input voltage (Vin) to the bandgap
reference, and the bandgap provides an error signal as output.
The 7805's bandgap circuit removes the feedback loop that
exists inside a traditional bandgap reference. Instead, the entire
chip becomes the feedback loop.
In more detail, if the output voltage is correct (5V), then the

voltage divider provides 3.75V at Vin, and the VBE and ΔVBE
voltages are as described above. If the output voltage rises or
falls slightly, this change propagates through Q6 and R7,
causing the voltage at the base of Q7 to rise or fall accordingly.
This change is amplified by Q7 and Q8, generating the error
output. [14] The error output, in turn, decreases or increases the
current through the output transistor, and this negative
feedback loop adjusts the output voltage until it is correct.
Interactive chip viewer

The image and schematic [9] below are an interactive
exploration of the 7805. Click a component to see its location
on the die and in the schematic highlighted. The box below will
give an explanation of the component. For transistors, the
emitter, base, and collector will be indicated on the die.
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Why I think this chip is counterfeit

The outside of the package has the ST Microelectronics logo,
but for several reasons I think the chip is counterfeit and
manufactured by someone else. First, on the die itself (below)
there is no ST logo, no mask copyright, and no manufacturer
information at all. (I have no explanation for why the die is
labeled 2805 and not 7805, or what P414 means.) In addition,
the circuit on the die is totally different from the internal circuit in
the ST Microelectronics 7805 datasheet. The metal of the
package looks grainy and low quality. Finally, I bought the part
off eBay, not from a reputable supplier, so it could have come
from anywhere. For these reasons, I conclude that the part I got
is counterfeit and not a genuine ST Microelectronics LM7805.
From what I hear, there's a lot of semiconductor counterfeiting
happening so I'm not surprised to get a counterfeit part. (But
see a dissenting opinion.)
Label on the die of a 7805 voltage regulator.
7805 history, and a look at some other

designs
I had assumed that all 7805 chips were pretty much the same.
But one surprise from studying datasheets is that different
manufacturers use totally different internal circuitry for the same
7805 chip and the name "7805" doesn't mean much more than
"some sort of 5 volt regulator."
To explain this, I'll start with a brief history of voltage regulators.

Simple IC voltage regulators got their start way back in 1968
when Fairchild introduced the µA723 voltage regulator, which
used a temperature-compensated Zener diode to provide an
adjustable voltage. In 1969 analog design genius Robert
Widlar [15] developed the National LM109 5-volt regulator, which
was much simpler to use. It was followed in 1972 by Fairchild's
7800 series of voltage regulators, ranging from 5 volts to 24
volts. In 1973 National came out with an improved regulator
series, the LM340-XX.
From this history, you'd expect that there's a LM109 design, a

7805 design, and a LM340 design. However, it turns out that
the part numbers are really just marketing, and have little to do
12 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
with what's inside the chip. Some 7805s are closer to the
LM109 than to other 7805s, and some LM340s are closer to
7805s than to other LM340s.
For instance, the Fairchild µA109 uses the common Fairchild

7800 series design. On the other hand, the National LM7805 is
very different from the Fairchild 7805, but is identical to the
National LM340, even sharing the same datasheet. This design
is very close to the original National LM109, so in effect
National sold the same design under three different names. [16]
Thus, it looks like companies reuse the same voltage regulator
design, changing little more than the part number between
devices. I suspect manufacturers are constrained by patents [17],
so they use the part numbers they want on the devices they
can make.
How a different, more popular 7805

design works
It turns out that 7805 design I reverse-engineered above is
fairly rare, and most 7805 chips use a different design, shown
below. [16] While the overall architecture of this design is similar
to the LM109-derived 7805 chip I examined, most of the pieces
have substantial changes. The current mirror [18], the startup
circuit, the bandgap regulator, and the protection circuitry are all
different.
Internal schematic of the Signetics µA7805 regulator from the datasheet.
Since this design is so popular, I'll give a brief explanation of

how its bandgap circuit works. [19] In the figure below, there's a
large VBE (red arrow) across high-current transistor Q1, and a
small VBE (green arrow) across low-current transistor Q2. Thus,
ΔVBE appears across R3, generating a current through R3, Q2,
and R2. Since R2 has 20 times the resistance as R3, 20ΔVBE
appears across R2, by Ohm's law.
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Now, to find the temperature-compensated stable voltage for

this circuit, follow the blue arrows up from ground. (As before,
the arrows do not indicate current flow, and Vin is the input to
the bandgap not the chip.) Going through Q3, Q4, R2, Q5 and
Q6, the voltages sum to 4VBE+20ΔVBE. Since there are four
VBEs, the circuit must be designed for four times the bandgap
voltage, or approximately 5V. Thus, this circuit's stable point is
5V. At this voltage, the error amplifying transistors (Q4/Q3) will
be in the active region and will respond to any variation away
from it. [20]
How the bandgap voltage is generated in the Signetics 7805 regulator.
How I looked at the 7805 die, and how you

can too
Usually getting the die out of an IC requires concentrated acid
to dissolve the epoxy package. But some ICs, such as the
7805, are available in metal cans which can be easily opened
with a hacksaw. I used a metallurgical microscope for my die
photos, but even a basic middle-school microscope shows you
the metal layer at at low magnification. If you're at all interested
in IC structure, or want to show kids what ICs look like inside,
you should get an IC in a metal can, saw it open yourself, and
take a look. (But first read the warning about beryllium inside
some chips.) Many different ICs in metal cans are available for
under $5 on eBay; search for "TO-99 IC". I find older chips such
as the 7805 are better for this than modern chips: the simpler
circuits and larger features make it easier to see the internals.
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Inside a 7805 voltage regulator. The tiny silicon die is visible in the middle of the
TO-5 package.
The photo above shows the 7805 regulator after removing the
top with a hacksaw. The metal package is almost entirely empty
inside - the silicon die is very small compared to the space
available. The metal acts as an effective heat sink to cool the
chip under high load. Even without magnification, the large
output transistor is visible at the right side of the die. The thin
wires between the pins and die are visible, including the two
separate wires to the output pin.
Conclusion
I hope this article has given you a better understanding of how
a voltage regulator works and what's inside a silicon chip.
Perhaps it has even inspired you to saw open some chips of
your own to explore the tiny world on a silicon chip for yourself.
And while you sit at your computer, think of the many voltage
regulators around you quietly keeping your electronics working
smoothly, whether made by their supposed manufacturer or
not.
Notes and references

[1] Computers usually get most of their power from switching
power supplies for efficiency, but linear regulators still have
their place. OlderATXpowersuppliesused the 7805 for the 5V
standby power, while othersusedthe related 7905 and 7912
regulators for -5V and -12V. Modern computers still use linear
regulators in surprising numbers. For instance the MacBook
Pro (A1278) uses a low-dropout regulator to generate 1.8 volts,
a switching controller with 3.3 and 5V linear regulators inside, a
main switching controller with a 5V regulator inside, a low-noise
4.6V regulator for audio and another regulator to generate 3.3V
for the keyboard.
[2] Earlier Arduinos such as the Arduino USB, NG and Severino

were powered through a 7805 regulator. Recent Arduino
15 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
models, however, use a switching step-down converter and an

ultra-low-dropout 3.3V regulator. This regulator uses the same
principles as the 7805, but is much more advanced.
[3] A big advantage of more modern voltage regulators is they

don't require as large an input voltage. The 7805 requires at
least two extra volts input (i.e. 7 volts in to produce 5 volts out) -
this is the dropout voltage. Newer low-dropout (LDO) regulators
can require as little as 0.1 extra volts. Modern regulators (such
as the TPS796xx) also have much less noise in the output.
Despite this, the 7805 is still popular, especially withhobbyists.
Adafruit has a nice comparison of regulators.
[4] Depending on the application, you'd probably want to add

input and output capacitors to the 7805 regulator to filter out
transients due to fluctuations in the input voltage or output load.
[5] While the 7805 chip has a single layer of metal over the
silicon to interconnect the circuitry, modern CPUs use many
more layers of metal due to their complexity. For example,
Haswell uses 11 layers while IBM's POWER8 uses an
astounding 15 metal layers. Needless to say, I'm not going to
figure out how those chips work with my microscope.
[6] The 7805 uses a wide variety of transistor layouts, as you

can see from the labeled die photo. Several transistors in the
bandgap use two emitters for one transistor (e.g. Q2, Q3, Q4,
Q5) to improve matching between transistors; the PNP current
mirror transistors Q11 and Q11-1 also have multiple emitters.
Pairs of transistors can share a single base (e.g. Q11 and
Q11-1), share a single collector (Q17 and Q18), or share both
(Q14 and Q19). Some transistors move the base to the middle
(e.g. Q6). To support high current, the output transistors (Q15,
Q16) have a totally different, much larger structure.
[7] You might have wondered why there is a distinction between

the collector and emitter of a transistor, when the simple picture
of a transistor is totally symmetrical. As you can see from the
die photo, the collector and emitter are very different in a real
transistor. In addition to the very large size difference, the
silicon doping is different. The result is a transistor will have
poor gain if the collector and emitter are swapped.
[8] The resistance of a resistor in silicon is proportional to its

length divided by its width. If you double the length, it's like two
resistors in series, so the resistance doubles. If you double the
width, it's like two resistors in parallel, so the resistance is cut in
half. One convenient consequence is if the chip is scaled down
(Moore's law), the resistors keep the same values, since the
width and length scale equally.
Silicon resistance is measured with the unusual unit ohms per

square (Ω/□). Note that there's no distance unit - it doesn't
16 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
matter if you have a square millimeter or square inch of

material; the resistance is the same because the dimensions
cancel out. For the 7805, I estimate 140 ohms/square for the
resistors.
[9] I looked at dozens of datasheets and the chip I examined

almost exactly matches the schematic for the Korean
Electronics KIA7805. The National LM340/LM78XX schematic
is very similar
[10] Bandgap circuits usually have two stable voltages - the

desired voltage and 0 volts. To keep the bandgap from getting
stuck at 0 volts, a startup circuit will "push" the bandgap away
from 0 volts so it will settle at the desired voltage. The startup
circuit is discussed in Widlar's application note AN-42 for the
similar LM109 (page 5).
[11] When building a bandgap reference, what really matters for

VBE is the current density through the transistors - the current
divided by the area of the emitter. Decreasing the current
through the transistor decreases the current density. The
second way to decrease current density is to use a larger
transistor with a larger emitter. Often five or ten identical
transistors in parallel will be combined to form this large
transistor to ensure the large transistor and the small transistor
are exactly matched.
[12] The VBE line for a bandgap reference is only perfectly

straight in theory, so the resulting bandgap voltage will vary
slightly with temperature. To increase stability, some more
complex bandgap references compensate for second-order
effects.
[13] Bandgap reference references: How to make a bandgap

voltage reference in one easy lesson by Paul Brokaw, inventor
of the Brokaw bandgap reference. A presentation on the
bandgap reference is here. The Design of Band-Gap Reference
Circuits: Trials and Tribulations by analog chip design legend
Bob Pease discusses real-world bandgap designs.
[14] You might wonder how the error output knows what voltage
to switch at. For a Darlington pair (Q7/Q8) to be active, the
base voltage must go above 2VBE (Wikipedia). The bandgap
reference was constructed assuming that at the reference
voltage, there will be VBE drops across Q7 and Q8. Thus, it's
not a coincidence that Darlington pair Q7/Q8 is right in the
active region (2VBE) at the bandgap voltage making the error
output very sensitive to any moves away from the reference
voltage. If the output voltage rises or falls, the voltage at the
base of Q7 rises or falls accordingly, and the transistors greatly
amplify this change. Also note that an increase in output
voltage causes a decrease in the error output, yielding negative
17 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
feedback for the whole chip.
[15] By all reports, Robert Widlar was an amazing analog

engineer, as well as an alcoholic crazy guy. Widlar invented key
analog IC circuits such as the Widlar current source as well as
groundbreaking ICs such as the µA702 and µA723. In 1970 he
sold his stock options for a million dollars (about 6 million
adjusted for inflation) and retired to Mexico at 33. Some
entertaining stories about him are here, on Wikipedia, and
pictures of his sheep.
[16] Most 7805 datasheets show the same internal schematic.

Some chips using the common design are Fairchild 7800
series, Hi-Sincerity H78XX, FCI LM7800, MCC MC7805,
Microelectronics ML7800, Motorola MCT7800, uPC7800H, JRC
NJM7800, TI uA7800, Signetics uA7800, and ST L7805. Other
chips use variants of the common design: AS78XXA, UTC
LM78XX, L78L05 and Motorola MC7800.
The LM109-based design of the 7805 that I looked at is very

different from the common design and appears to be fairly rare;
it is used by National LM340/LM7800 and KEC KIA7805AF.
There are a few differences to note between this design and the
original National LM109. In order to support multiple output
voltages, the 7805 design uses a resistor divider and a different
circuit feeding the bandgap reference. This probably also
motivated the removal of a couple transistors from the bandgap
circuit so its voltage is one VBE drop lower. The startup circuit is
also slightly changed.
[17] Widlar's patent on the bandgap reference is 3617859. A

later patent with a bandgap reference very similar to the
LM109's is 4249122.
[18] A current mirror is a very useful way of connecting

transistors so the current through the second transistor
matches the current through the first transistor. For more
information about current mirrors, you can check Wikipedia or
any analog IC book such as chapter 3 of Designing Analog
Chips.
[19] Several sources give an explanation of the common 7805

design that is plausible but wrong. The faulty explanation is that
Zener D1 provides the reference voltage. It feeds into a
comparator built from Q13 and Q10 (or Q6) as a differential pair
and Q1, Q7, and Q2 forming a current mirror active load. The
most obvious problem with this is Q13, Q6, R1, and R2 are all
tied together which would short out the two sides of the
supposed differential pair / current mirror.
Ironically, the design of the 7905 (the negative-voltage version

of the 7805) is similar to the erroneous 7805 explanation. The
7905 uses a Zener diode to provide the reference voltage. A
18 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
comparator with a current mirror active load generates the error

signal by comparing the reference voltage with the feedback
voltage. Meanwhile another current mirror ensures a constant
(probably temperature-compensated) current flows through the
Zener diode. I had expected the 79XX chips would be mirror-
images of the 78XX chips, but the internal design turns out to
be fundamentally different. This explains why the block
diagrams in 7905 datasheets show a comparator and 7805
datasheets just show an "error amplifier" box.
[20] In the common 7805 design, I believe the purpose of Q7

and R10 is to pull the same current from Q1's base that Q4 and
R14 pull from Q2's base, to keep both sides balanced. Because
R1 is 1KΩ and R2+R3 is 21kΩ, 21 times the current should flow
through Q1 as through Q2.
Labels: chips, electronics, reverse-engineering
32 comments:
Anonymous said...
Great job! I appreciate the circuit description and pictures.
September 6, 2014 at 10:53 AM
Anonymous said...
I'm a complete electricity nitwit, but stuff like this is always
interesting and even mildly comprehensible. Thanks for
this!
September 6, 2014 at 1:01 PM
Anonymous said...
Thank's Ken for another enlightening post!
Always appreciate the time and effort that is placed in

exploring and explaining the machines that rule our lives -
an education indeed.
KE5FX said...
Fantastic post, Ken. As your footnote says, I'd always
assumed the Zener was responsible for the reference
voltage in a 78xx part. I'm looking forward to more posts
like this one.
19 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
Joe said...
This was absolutely amazing! I found it from another site,
but have followed you in my blog reader thingie (sorry, not
very good with technology).
Can't wait for your next post! I don't suppose you would
mind emails, would you?
Anonymous said...
Your blog is wonderful. Please continue to share your
knowledge of electronics and your discoveries regarding
consumer devices.
Anonymous said...
I have used so much of your insight and information which
is either nicely written up or beutifully built. Keep it coming.
Andreas said...
Great work with the interactive schematic/layout! I've just
challenged a colleague by emailing him a link to the bare
schematic and asked him to identify the largest transistor
in the schematic. (Although I'm pretty sure that he will find
it almost immediately...)
Anonymous said...
Thanks Prof Ken
Anonymous said...
Graet ! Thank you !
Unknown said...
Thanks for another great post, this was a nice read!
After reading I had to read the Bob Pease post you linked
to about Widlar, and then I had to end up reading more
about Widlar which was pretty fascinating. It's very
interesting to think of how these designs were first
20 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
invented in the early days of IC design and how

sometimes a very few people in a field come up with some
of the groundbreaking innovations.
Anonymous said...
When I was a chip designer, the block diagrams and
schematics on the datasheet were usually drawn by
someone in marketing, and usually without any input from
the circuit designers. Perhaps this was to avoid leaking
any super-secret IP :-) Reading the datasheet and finding
out what was supposed to be in my chips was usually
surprising and sometimes quite amusing. I would not read
too much into the schematic on a datasheet, in fact many
times the schematics have obvious errors that would make
them not work. It's a pity that the schematics aren't
accurate (with transistor sizes and netlists provided) as
this would allow much better spice models. Other IC
companies have no trouble reverse engineering the chips
in any case.
Anonymous said...
Thank you for this !
Anonymous said...
Would be interesting to compare with a guenine ST part,
before assuming it is counterfeit.
Crow said...
In 1984 at my first job, the boss decided to "save a few
bucks" and ordered some TO-220 7805s from Europe.
These things did not work at all. They did pass a voltage
but it was not regulated. I remember taking one and
cracking it open in a vise to discover there was no chip
inside--the Vin and Vout leads were a single stamp of
metal making a wire. It turns out these things were from
the former USSR via some distributor in Poland. I got the
boss to go back to Hamilton-Avnet.
Anonymous said...
Thanks Prof Ken for the great post. How did you make that
interactive chip viewer?
21 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
Ken Shirriff said...

Thanks for the comments. Andreas: you can challenge
your colleague to find the second-largest transistor in the
die photo. Crow: you win for best counterfeit with the chip
that was just a piece of wire inside. Anonymous, I wrote a
few details on the interactive chip viewer here. It's a bunch
of JavaScript; the hard part was defining the regions for
every component in the chip.
MeJMe said...
Please don't take this as a negative comment, but I was
concerned about your comments concerning sawing the
tops off metal-can power devices, especially when you
'want to show kids what ICs look like inside'.
Nothing wrong with wanting to do that, but back in the day

the advice was to be EXTREMELY careful when sawing
open metal-can devices, especially power devices, as they
commonly contained beryllium oxides which are toxic on
dust inhalation and also carcinogens: see eg
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/diseases/beryllium.html
I don't know about current production but I suspect it's still

used; certainly it will be in any 70's/80s/90s production
items you miught want to sacrifice.
So please use dangerous material protocols if you must

saw open a metal can power device, at the very least
using well-fitting masks, latex gloves and good ventilation.
Don't let kids play with them! Looking through a scope
after they have been cleaned should be OK.
Even after it's been opened some packages shed

beryllium dust, in my experience, so they should be
bagged and not left around.
Some plastic packages also used beryllium oxide as a

heat conducting element, so please be careful!
Otherwise, interesting article. I used to make sensitive

opto sensors like this (in the 70's!) when they were
otherwise very expensive... a clear epoxy was used to fill
the opened can.
Anonymous said...
Hi,
22 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
I'm trying to implement that design, however i dont't know

what types of components zener diodes,bjts) are used in
second figure (most popular 7805 design). Could you give
these components names? Thank you.
February 20, 2015 at 4:48 AM
Heeroyui said...
Excellent post, I really learn something new from you.
thanks for sharing.
May 23, 2015 at 2:19 PM
Anonymous said...
I remember that in the late 70s was common to find 7805
marked 2805 but i do not know the story behind. I still
have some on circuits in my recycle bin
August 19, 2015 at 11:13 AM
Foundling said...
"2805" on the die is likely a date code: 28th week of 2005.
October 13, 2015 at 12:32 PM
Anonymous said...
The best, you got very good semiconductor knowledge.
hope you post more.
June 8, 2016 at 10:36 PM
Unknown said...
i am using this chip from past 1 year and we have
developed more then 2000 power supply units and used
this as a 5 volt provider. and nowadays when the
user(Indian army) started using this chip is failing very
frequently.i could not find the root cause. can somebody
help me.all the i/p, o/p, are within the specifications.
August 2, 2016 at 1:43 AM
Anonymous said...
Thanks for the effort that went into this. Interesting read.
October 2, 2016 at 4:43 AM
Alain said...
Looking closely at the die, I wonder how can those tiny
wires going from and to the casing can withstand 1 amp of
DC current ???
23 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
November 5, 2017 at 1:10 PM
Sorin C. said...
Indian army should use indian designs, i.e. Tata motors
design, so ur 5V stabs are good enough for indian army:)
December 27, 2017 at 10:01 PM
Brian said...
I have a KIA78R08API which is believe is a clone of the
Fairchild KA78R08C LDO regulator. This regulator has an
enable/disable 4th pin. I would be interested in knowing
what would cause this pin to pull itself low with a +voltage
applied to it.
I know, it's weird but maybe theirs a simple reason.
Thanks and this blog is fantastic!
Anonymous said...
Probably one of the most interesting articles I've ever read.
Thank you very much for this!
Richard said...
I took some pictures of a ST 7824C:
https://www.richis-lab.de/voltageregulator12.htm
The circuit of the 7824C fits to the schematic in the
datasheet.
It really looks like ST has put different circuits in the TO3
and the TO220/D2PAK packages (7800 vs. 7800C). That
explains why the specifications of the TO3 are different to
the T220 and D2PAK.
May 19, 2021 at 2:19 PM
Lohi Karhu said...

The very first data sheet for 7805 had the pinout wrong,
and I ended up with an "interesting" burn mark on my
index finger! We were so excited to see a single-chip
regulator, we bought one as soon as it was announced!
March 17, 2022 at 3:26 AM
Software Santa said...

I found a dead link ... the text in question reads "Because
silicon is so sensitive to impurities, the original silicon
wafer must be an insanely pure crystal, up to
99.999999999% pure - a level known as eleven nines. "
24 of 25 10/16/2023, 7:11 AM
The Link on "eleven nines" is gone ... you should replace

the dead link with this link instead: https://web.archive.org
/web/20100312040734/http://cleanroom.byu.edu:80
/EW_formation.phtml
April 10, 2022 at 6:03 PM
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7805 Circuit Analysis

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Computer history, restoring vintage computers, IC reverse engineering, and whatever

Reverse engineering a counterfeit

Update: It turns out my 7805 isn't counterfeit. eclectro did

Under a microscope, a silicon chip is a mysterious world with

A voltage regulator takes an unregulated input voltage and

The 7805 is a common type of regulator known as a linear

Linear regulators such as the 7805 became very popular

The components of the integrated circuit

On top of the silicon, a thin layer of metal connects different electronics

Structure of a NPN transistor inside the 7805 voltage regulator.

Underneath the photo is a cross-section drawing showing

a P+ ring that isolates it from neighboring components.

Resistors inside the IC

Two resistors on the 7805 voltage regulator's silicon die.

How the 7805 works

Components of the 7805 regulator: bandgap (yellow), error amp (orange),

The bandgap reference (yellow) is what keeps the voltage

The error signal from the bandgap reference is amplified by the

The voltage divider (blue) scales down the voltage on the

the output voltage of the chip.

How a bandgap reference works

To create a voltage that goes down with temperature, you put a

Vbe vs temperature for a transistor

If you set up a second transistor this way but with a lower

Voltages in a bandgap reference: Vbe for two transistors as temperature

The final step to a bandgap reference is to combine VBE and

By adding multiples of ΔVbe to Vbe, the bandgap voltage is reached regardless

How the 7805's bandgap reference works

The diagram below shows the 7805's bandgap circuit with

The next step is very important as it scales up the voltage. The

Finally, we can see the bandgap's voltage by looking at the

How the bandgap voltage is generated in the 7805 voltage regulator.

A traditional bandgap circuit generates a stable reference

In more detail, if the output voltage is correct (5V), then the

Interactive chip viewer

Why I think this chip is counterfeit

Label on the die of a 7805 voltage regulator.

7805 history, and a look at some other

To explain this, I'll start with a brief history of voltage regulators.

From this history, you'd expect that there's a LM109 design, a

For instance, the Fairchild µA109 uses the common Fairchild

How a different, more popular 7805

Internal schematic of the Signetics µA7805 regulator from the datasheet.

Since this design is so popular, I'll give a brief explanation of

Now, to find the temperature-compensated stable voltage for

How the bandgap voltage is generated in the Signetics 7805 regulator.

How I looked at the 7805 die, and how you

Notes and references

[2] Earlier Arduinos such as the Arduino USB, NG and Severino

models, however, use a switching step-down converter and an

[3] A big advantage of more modern voltage regulators is they

[4] Depending on the application, you'd probably want to add

[6] The 7805 uses a wide variety of transistor layouts, as you

[7] You might have wondered why there is a distinction between

[8] The resistance of a resistor in silicon is proportional to its

Silicon resistance is measured with the unusual unit ohms per

matter if you have a square millimeter or square inch of

[9] I looked at dozens of datasheets and the chip I examined

[10] Bandgap circuits usually have two stable voltages - the

[11] When building a bandgap reference, what really matters for

[12] The VBE line for a bandgap reference is only perfectly

[13] Bandgap reference references: How to make a bandgap

feedback for the whole chip.

[15] By all reports, Robert Widlar was an amazing analog