An Ultra Low-Voltage Ultra Low-Power CMOS Threshold Voltage Reference

Luis H.C. FERREIRA
Tales C. PIMENTA
Robson L. MORENO

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E90-C    No.10    pp.2044-2050
Publication Date: 2007/10/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e90-c.10.2044
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: PAPER
Category: Electronic Circuits
Keyword: 
threshold voltage,  voltage reference,  ultra low-power,  ultra low-voltage,  

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Summary: 
This paper describes a CMOS voltage reference that makes use of weak inversion CMOS transistors and linear resistors, without the need for bipolar transistors. Its operation is analogous to the bandgap reference voltage, but the reference voltage is based on the threshold voltage of an nMOS transistor. The circuit implemented using 0.35 µm n-well CMOS TSMC process generates a reference of 741 mV under just 390 nW for a power supply of only 950 mV. The circuit presented a variation of 39 ppm/ for the -20 to +80 temperature range, and produced a line regulation of 25 mV/V for a power supply of up to 3 V.