yes... see it everywhere in SOT223 and SOT89, as the "drop a basic LDO down" for like "a bit" of power. Comes in "second sources" from thousands of vendors, available for cents. Good for it. It also has a high dropout voltage, around 1V or more, and it absolutely just burns power, with a "typical" 5mA in quiescent current!
It's 2022. You can do better. (And you have been able to for years)
The parts below are all around or under 100uA in quiescent current, and pin compatible! Just drop and go!
Expect to pay around 5-10c for these, instead of ~3-5C for x1117 parts.
- Nanjing Micro One Elec ME6118A family (Iq: 53uA, VinMax: 18V, Vdrop: varies with load) (This one comes in different pin configurations, the 'A' suffix is the "normal" one you want)
- Seaward Elec SE5120 family and SED5120 (Iq: 150uA, VinMax: 6V, Vdrop: 300mV) (Note, this also comes in different pinconfigs, you want the "T" suffix, not the "G" suffix)
- Lowpower LP1116 family (Iq: 90uA, VinMax: 6.5V, Vdrop: 480mV)
- Shanghai Mingda MD7218 family (Iq: 1.6uA, VinMax: 15V, Vdrop: 650mV)
(there's others, this is what was in stock on LCSC at the time of writing. The general trick is to look for any LDO in SOT223, that does not have "1117" in the name)
On Mouser, at the time of writing, a "good" option, the AP2111 and AP2114 are both cheaper than the cheapest legacy x1117 part, the SPX1117, at €0.16 vs €0.18 in hundreds)
- Diodes AP2111H family or AP2114 family (Iq: 55uA, Vdrop: 1000mV, VinMax: 6.5V) (Comes in multiple pinouts!)
- Diodes AP7365 family (Iq: 35uA, VinMax: 6V, Vdrop: 370mV) (Comes in multiple pinouts!)
- Diodes AP7361 (Iq: 60uA, Vdrop: 360mV, VinMax: 6V)
Yay Diodes? No-one else? really? Booooo!
- Onsemi's NCP1117LP (Iq: 500uA, Vdrop: 1.3V, VinMax: 18) (See below)
- ST's LDL1117 (Iq: 250uA, VinMax: 18V) (See below)
- TI's TLV1117LV (Iq: 100uA, VinMax: 6V, Vdrop: ~500mV)
- Microchip's TC2117 (Iq: 80uA, VinMax: 6V, Vdrop: varies)
A few western vendors have realised the issue, and made "updated" x1117 designs. Onsemi, TI, ST... They're ok, they're certainly better than the legacy x1117 designs, but you can normally still do better. You normally get to keep the 15-18V VinMax limit with these parts though. I've tried to list them above. Kudos to them for at least recognising that this is something that not just can, but should be improved.
Probably the same parts, but I've not gone explicitly looking, SOT223 is the most common "I'm not going to think, I'm just going to drop an LM1117 on it" part.
What?! More!? Yes. In ~all of these cases, you'll also get better/lower dropout voltage.
Some of these parts may have lower VinMax. that may or not even matter. You will pay fractionally more for these parts compared to xxx1117 clones, Yes, if you hate everyone, keep just living in the 70s. Otherwise, buy these better options, and we'll get more people making them too.
(5mA-100uA) @ 3.3V means ~16mW per device savings. @ 100K parts, @ 24/7, (wildly low parts, probably wildly high runtime) that's already @ 100k parts @ 24/7 (yes, not all assumptions are reasonable) => that's already 14 MWh per year in "free" energy. Is that a lot? well, depends. Using EIA estimates that's between 1 and 2 US homes, for a year. So, not a lot.... no, but, it's free You literally just have to stop using 70s tech solutions!
Yes. I am asking you to pay a tiny bit more to save power that probably won't ever pay off on your BOM. If western parts are already ~equivalent on price and china parts are single digit cents, for a regulator that is low single digits for BOM line items, then yes, you can and should pay this price. You should be paying for parts that don't suck, even if the "suck" aspect is not one that matters to your particular end product. Vote with your $, select parts that are good.