Automotive-grade adjustable shunt reference in SOT-23-3
The Texas Instruments LM4041QCIM3-ADJ/NO is an AEC-Q100 qualified shunt voltage reference that delivers an adjustable output from 1.233 V up to 10 V.
What the shunt topology means for your bias budget
As a shunt reference, this part sinks current from the load through the cathode to ground. The minimum cathode current is 65 µA — below that the reference loses regulation, so the bias resistor must be sized to keep at least 65 µA flowing at all times, even with zero load current. Maximum output current is 12 mA, which sets the ceiling for how many downstream ADC inputs or comparator thresholds this single reference can serve.
Tolerance and drift — what ±0.5% and 100 ppm/°C buy you
Initial tolerance is ±0.5%, which is the standard precision tier for automotive sensor references — tight enough for a 12-bit ADC without external trimming, but not the ±0.1% grade needed for a precision DAC. The temperature coefficient is 100 ppm/°C, so across the full 165°C span the output can shift by up to 1.65% from the 25°C value. Noise is specified at 20 µVrms over a 10 Hz to 10 kHz bandwidth, which is low enough that it will not dominate the LSB noise of a typical 10- or 12-bit conversion.