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A 134-nW Single BJT Bandgap Voltage and Current Reference in 0.18-µm CMOS

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Abstract

This paper presents a sub-microwatt sub-bandgap voltage and current reference that can generate proportional-to-absolute-temperature (PTAT) and complementary-to-absolute-temperature (CTAT) currents concurrently. The voltage reference is derived from the process-insensitive silicon bandgap voltage of a bipolar junction transistor, whereas the current reference is made by combining PTAT and CTAT currents. Line regulation is improved by incorporating cascode devices without an operational amplifier (opamp). Fabricated in a standard 0.18-µm CMOS process, the proposed bandgap reference occupies an active area of 0.4 mm2. The current and voltage reference (\({I}_{\mathrm{REF}}\) and \({V}_{\mathrm{REF}}\)) are measured as 170 mV and 21 nA, respectively, while the start-up settling response is measured as 20 ms at room temperature. The average temperature coefficient of \({I}_{\mathrm{REF}}\) and \({V}_{\mathrm{REF}}\) is 79.8 ppm/°C and 87.93 ppm/°C across the temperature range from − 40 to 120 °C, respectively. The power consumption is 134 nW at the minimum supply voltage of 1.2 V. The power supply ripple rejection of \({V}_{\mathrm{REF}}\) is measured as − 10 dB at 100 kHz without any filtering capacitor, when the 1.6 V input line voltage is distorted by a 300-mVp-p ripple. The measured line sensitivity of the voltage and current reference is 0.142%/V and 0.757%/V, respectively.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The authors did not receive any direct support from any organization for this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Payame Noor University (PNU), Tehran, 19395–4697, Iran

    Hamed Aminzadeh & Mohammad Mahdi Valinezhad

  2. Electrical Engineering Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, 31270-901, Brazil

    Dalton Martini Colombo

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  1. Hamed Aminzadeh
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Hamed Aminzadeh. Simulations were performed by Hamed Aminzadeh, Dalton Martini Colombo and Mohammad Mahdi Valinezhad. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Hamed Aminzadeh, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Hamed Aminzadeh.

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Aminzadeh, H., Colombo, D.M. & Valinezhad, M.M. A 134-nW Single BJT Bandgap Voltage and Current Reference in 0.18-µm CMOS. Circuits Syst Signal Process 42, 1293–1311 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-022-02158-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00034-022-02158-5

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