A Self-Regulated Reference Generator with Picowatt-VR-Embedded Amplifier Achieving 0.0174%/V LS and-88dB PSRR

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel compact voltage and current reference circuit, leveraging an enhanced self-cascode MOS voltage reference (VR) that operates as a VR-embedded operational amplifier (opamp) to create a resistor-based V-I converter. Fabricated in 55-nm CMOS, this opamp exhibits minimal power consumption of 144pW at room temperature, providing a 213.2nA reference current and a 261.8mV reference voltage from a 1V supply, all within a very small 90 mu mx130 mu m chip area. This design achieves temperature coefficients of 186.2ppm/degrees C and 232.6ppm/degrees C for the voltage and current references, respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate an improvement in line regulation through a single-transistor voltage regulation loop, achieving line sensitivities of 0.0174%/V and 0.011%/V for the voltage and current references, respectively. Significantly, the PSRR of the reference voltage at 10Hz shows a 24.6dB improvement over existing state-of-the-art design.