Ultralow-Power Current Reference Circuit with Low Temperature Dependence

Abstract

An ultralow power constant reference current circuit with low temperature dependence for micropower electronic applications is proposed in this paper. This circuit consists of a constant-current subcircuit and a bias-voltage subcircuits, and it compensates for the temperature characteristics of mobility µ, thermal voltage V T , and threshold voltage V T H in such a way that the reference current has small temperature dependence. A SPICE simulation demonstrated that reference current and total power dissipation is 97.7 nA, 1.1 µW, respectively, and the variation in the reference current can be kept very small within ±4% in a temperature range from −20 to 100 • C.

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