A true low voltage class-AB current mirror

Class-AB circuits, which are able to deal with currents which are orders of magnitude larger than their quiescent current, are good candidates for low-power analog design. This paper presents a new, simple, class-AB current-mirror, based on the Flipped Voltage Follower [1]. In the authors knowledge this is the first class-AB current-mirror which operates with a supply voltage smaller than two transistor threshold voltages without an additional clock signal or voltage doubler. Experimental results are provided which show proper operation at 1.5V in a 0.5µm standard CMOS technology.

[1]  Robert G. Meyer,et al.  Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits , 1993 .

[2]  Ramón González Carvajal,et al.  The flipped voltage follower: a useful cell for low-voltage low-power circuit design , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[3]  Salvatore Pennisi,et al.  A true low-voltage CMOS class AB current mirror , 2000, 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Emerging Technologies for the 21st Century. Proceedings (IEEE Cat No.00CH36353).