A voltage ladder is a simple

electronic circuit An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow. It is a type of electrical ...

consisting of several

resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active el ...

s connected in

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used i ...

with a

voltage Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to m ...

placed across the entire resistor network. Voltage ladders are useful for providing a set of successive voltage references, for instance for a flash analog-to-digital converter.

How it works

voltage drop Voltage drop is the decrease of electrical potential along the path of a current flowing in an electrical circuit. Voltage drops in the internal resistance of the source, across conductors, across contacts, and across connectors are undesirable ...

occurs across each resistor in the network causing each successive "

rung Rung may refer to: * Rung (band), a Pakistan band * ''Rung'' (album), an album by Hadiqa Kiyani * Rung languages, a proposed group of Tibeto-Burman languages * Rung, an ethnic group of people inhabiting the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand, ...

" of the ladder (each node of the circuit) to have a higher voltage than the one before it.

Ohm's law Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equat ...

can be used to easily calculate the voltage at each node. Since the ladder is a series circuit, the

current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (stre ...

is the same throughout, and is given by the total voltage divided by the total resistance (V/R_eq), which is just the sum of each series resistor in the ladder. The voltage drop across any one resistor is now given simply by I*R_n, where I is the current calculated above, and R_n is the resistance of the resistor in question. The voltage referenced to

ground Ground may refer to: Geology * Land, the surface of the Earth not covered by water * Soil, a mixture of clay, sand and organic matter present on the surface of the Earth Electricity * Ground (electricity), the reference point in an electrical c ...

at any node is simply the sum of the voltages dropped by each resistor between that node and ground. Alternatively, you can use

voltage division Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to mo ...

to determine node voltages without having to calculate the current directly. By this method, the voltage drop across any resistor is V*R_n/R_eq where V is the total voltage, R_eq is the total (equivalent) resistance, and R_n is the resistance of the resistor in question. The voltage of a node referenced to ground is still the sum of the drops across all the resistors, but it's now easier to consider all these resistors as a single equivalent resistance R_T, which is simply the sum of all the resistances between the node and ground, so the node voltage is given by V*R_T/R_eq. {{DEFAULTSORT:Voltage Ladder Analog circuits