Voltage regulator employing a voltage divider havin gan intermediate point at a reference potential

Claim 1

A POWER SUPPLY SYSTEM INCLUDING A DOUBLE-ENDED SOURCE OF DIRECT-CURRENT POTENTIAL HAVING POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TERMINALS RELATIVE TO AN INTERMEDIATE REFERENCE POTENTIAL, A LOD CIRCUIT HAVING TWO TERMINALS, AND CIRCUIT MEANS CONNECTING SAID SOURCE TO SAID LOAD FOR MAINTAINING A PREDETERMINED RATIO BETWEEN THE VOLTAGES AT THE TWO TERMINALS OF SAID LOAD WITH RESPECT TO SAID REFERENCE POTENTIAL, SAID CIRCUIT MEANS COMPRISING A VARIABLE IMPEDANCE INSERTED BETWEEN ONE TERMINAL OF SAID SOURCE AND ONE TERMINAL OF SAID LOAD, A RESISTIVE VOLTAGE DIVIDER CONNECTED BETWEEN THE TERMINALS OF SAID LOAD, SAID DIVIDER HAVING AN INTERMEDIATE POINT FOR WHICH THE RESISTANCE BETWEEN SAID POINT AND ONE LOAD TERMINAL BEARS SAID PREDETERMINED RATIO TO THE RESISTANCE BETWEEN SAID POINT AND THE OTHER LOAD TERMINAL, A TRANSISTOR HAVING ITS BASE ELECTRODE CONNECTED TO SAID POINT AND ITS EMITTER ELECTRODE CONNECTED TO SAID REFERENCE POTENTIAL AND HAVING AN INHERENT EMITTER-BASE VOLTAGE DROP SUCH THAT SAID POINT HAS A POTENTIAL DIFFERENT FROM SAID REFERENCE POTENTIAL, AND A SOURCE OF BIAS POTENTIAL INCLUDED IN SAID VOLTAGE DIVIDER FOR MAKING THE PONTENTIAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SAID INTERMEDIATE POINT AND THE POTENTIAL OF THE VOLTAGE CENTER OF SAID DIVIDER EQUAL TO SAID EMITTER-BASE DROP AND THE POTENTIAL OF SAID CENTER EQUAL TO SAID REFERENCE POTENTIAL.