Thanks, TiN for the advice.
Regarding the boosting stage, it does seem that the boosting stage is trickier than the LTZ reference and all the questions that was raised so far related to the circuit was to understand the circuit before building so that the component quality can be decided. That is, I agree that the function of R8 should be understood before being placed on the real circuit.
I think you are suggesting to have a new thread for this boosting stage because it is off topic from this original thread topic, right? Yes, we shall do that. The reason that the boosting stage was discussed here was that the tempco of the LTZ1000 tempco setting resistors can actually correct for the tempco of the boosting stage circuit as well.....so not completely off topic.
In addition, I agree that building a real circuit is better than simulation when it comes to circuit evaluation. However, some simulation is still invaluable at the beginning stage to have a rough picture of the circuit behaviour.
Sorry imisaac, it sounds like you would be much better off actually building circuit on breadboard and playing around it with DMM, as it feels like we design your ref for you. While it's all good and fun for all involved, we have no idea if our understanding of the project matches what you want out of all this.
You are right that this circuit is being designed collectively by all of us in this forum. The original goal was to explore how the tempco of LTZ1000 can be compensated by a transistor so that a better stability may be reached. Therefore, many theoretical questions about the circuit limitations were raised. I do not understand why you think this circuit is being designed just for me. That is in contradiction to the open nature of the forum.....maybe that is not what you meant. Anyway, the most important point of doing any discussion is that
...it's all good and fun for all involved...
quote by TiN
In summary, I agree that we should move the discussion of the boosting stage to a different thread after some initial test results are available.