A 2-nW 1.1-V self-biased current reference in CMOS technology

This work presents the design of an ultra-low-power self-biased 400-pA current source. We propose the use of a very simple topology along with a design methodology based on the concept of inversion level. An efficient design methodology has resulted in a cell area around 0.045 mm/sup 2/ in the AMI 1.5-/spl mu/m CMOS technology and power consumption around 2 nW for 1.2-V supply. Simulated and experimental results validate the design and show that the current source can operate at supply voltages down to 1.1 V with a good regulation (<6% /V variation of the supply voltage) in a 1.5-/spl mu/m technology.

[1]  Carlos Galup-Montoro,et al.  Series-parallel association of FET's for high gain and high frequency applications , 1994, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[2]  Vivek De,et al.  Temperature and process invariant MOS-based reference current generation circuits for sub-1V operation , 2003, ISLPED '03.

[3]  Francisco Serra-Graells,et al.  Sub-1-V CMOS proportional-to-absolute temperature references , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[4]  S. Narendra,et al.  Temperature and process invariant MOS-based reference current generation circuits for sub-1V operation , 2003, Proceedings of the 2003 International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design, 2003. ISLPED '03..

[5]  J. Fellrath,et al.  CMOS analog integrated circuits based on weak inversion operations , 1977 .

[6]  C.-H. Lee,et al.  All-CMOS temperature independent current reference , 1996 .

[7]  Carlos Galup-Montoro,et al.  An MOS transistor model for analog circuit design , 1998, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[8]  Marcel J. M. Pelgrom,et al.  Matching properties of MOS transistors , 1989 .

[9]  H. Oguey,et al.  CMOS Current Reference without Resistance , 1996, ESSCIRC '96: Proceedings of the 22nd European Solid-State Circuits Conference.

[10]  Edgar Sanchez-Sinencio,et al.  INVITED PAPER Special Section on Analog Circuits and Related Topics Low Voltage Analog Circuit Design Techniques: A Tutorial , 2000 .

[11]  Bernabé Linares-Barranco,et al.  On the design and characterization of femtoampere current-mode circuits , 2003, IEEE J. Solid State Circuits.

[12]  Christian Enz,et al.  CMOS low-power analog circuit design , 1996, Emerging Technologies: Designing Low Power Digital Systems.

[13]  Willy Sansen,et al.  A CMOS temperature-compensated current reference , 1988 .