Products in the voltage reference family are used to derive an electrical potential having a stable, well-established value from a source of more uncertain character, for use as a standard of comparison in measurement, control, and similar applications. While their functional behavior may be similar to that of linear voltage regulators used for purposes of bulk power regulation, voltage reference devices are not adapted for use as such; their performance as standards of comparison has a generally inverse relationship with increasing output current capacity or actual current drawn by a load.
