Ultra low-voltage ultra low-power CMOS threshold voltage reference

ABSTRACT

A simple voltage reference source in weak inversion CMOS for ultra low-voltage and ultra low-power applications is presented. Its voltage reference is provided by the threshold voltage of an nMOS transistor, as it can be verified in the theoretical deduction presented and by the BSIM3v3 simulations. The circuit simulated in a standard 0.35μm CMOS process provided a voltage reference of 512.03mV with a variation of just 33ppm°C for the temperature range of - 30°C to 100°C, and ± 0.42%/V variation for the power supply ranging from 750mV to 3.60V. The circuit takes a total area of 0.06mm² and requires only 800nA of biasing current.

REFERENCES

• 1: P. E. Allen and D. R. Holberg, CMOS Analog Circuits Design. Oxford University Press, inc., 2000
• 2: Y. P. Tsividis, Operation and Modeling of the MOS Transistor. New York: McGraw Hill, 1987
• 3: G. Tzanateas, C. A. T. Salama, and Y. P. Tsividis, "A CMOS Bandgap Voltage Reference", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 14, pp. 655--657, June 1979
• 4: H. Banba, H. Shiga, A. Umezawa, T. Miyaba and K. Sakui, "A CMOS Bandgap Reference Circuit with Sub-1-V Operation", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 34, pp. 670--674, May 1999
• 5: G. Giustolisi, G. Palumbo, M. Criscione and F. Cutri, "A Low-Voltage Low-Power Voltage Reference Based on Subthreshold MOSFETs", IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 38, pp. 151--154, January 2003
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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.7 INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
      B.7.m Miscellaneous

General Terms:
Design

Keywords:
CMOS, low power, low voltage, threshold voltage, voltage reference