CMOS voltage reference based on gate work function differences in poly-Si controlled by conductivity type and impurity concentration

A new CMOS voltage reference circuit consisting of two pairs of transistors is presented. One pair exhibits a threshold voltage difference with a negative temperature coefficient (-0.49 mV//spl deg/C), while the other exhibits a positive temperature coefficient (+0.17 mV//spl deg/C). The circuit was robust to process variations and exhibited excellent temperature independence and stable output voltage. Aside from conductivity type and impurity concentrations of gate electrodes, transistors in the pairs were identical, meaning that the system was robust with respect to process fluctuations. Measurements of the voltage reference circuit without trimming adjustments revealed that it had excellent output voltage reproducibility of within /spl plusmn/2%, low temperature coefficient of less than 80 ppm//spl deg/C, and low current consumption of 0.6 /spl mu/A.     

CMOS voltage references using lateral bipolar transistors

Two bandgap references are presented which make use of CMOS compatible lateral bipolar transistors. The circuits are designed to be insensitive to the low beta and alpha current gains of these devices. Their accuracy is not degraded by any amplifier offset. The first reference has an intrinsic low output impedance. Experimental results yield an output voltage which is constant within 2 mV, over the commercial temperature range (0 to 70/spl deg/C), when all the circuits of the same batch are trimmed at a single temperature. The load regulation is 3.5 /spl mu/V//spl mu/A, and the power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) at 100 Hz is 60 dB. Measurements on a second reference yield a PSRR of minimum 77 dB at 100 Hz. Temperature behaviour is identical to the first circuit presented. This circuit requires a supply voltage of only 1.7 V.     

A fully implanted NMOS, CMOS, bipolar technology for VLSI of analog-digital systems

A fully ion-implanted process allows high-density integration of NMOS, CMOS, and bipolar transistors for VLSI of analog-digital systems. Supply voltage can be 20 V. Thresholds are /spl plusmn/1.5 V for p- and n-channel enhancement transistors, respectively. Standard deviation per wafer is 15 mV for the NMOS threshold, while the NMOS gain constant is 30 /spl mu/AV/SUP -2/. The bipolar transistors have a low-resistance base contact. Current gain can be set independently. For current gain=90, the Early voltage if V/SUB A/=110 V. No epi layer, isolation diffusions, or channel stoppers are required. The mask count is 6 for structure definition plus 2 for the masking of implants. The process can be scaled along the learning curve of digital MOS VLSI.     

A CMOS smart temperature sensor with a 3/spl sigma/ inaccuracy of /spl plusmn/0.5/spl deg/C from -50/spl deg/C to 120/spl deg/C

A low-cost temperature sensor with on-chip sigma-delta ADC and digital bus interface was realized in a 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS process. Substrate PNP transistors are used for temperature sensing and for generating the ADC's reference voltage. To obtain a high initial accuracy in the readout circuitry, chopper amplifiers and dynamic element matching are used. High linearity is obtained by using second-order curvature correction. With these measures, the sensor's temperature error is dominated by spread on the base-emitter voltage of the PNP transistors. This is trimmed after packaging by comparing the sensor's output with the die temperature measured using an extra on-chip calibration transistor. Compared to traditional calibration techniques, this procedure is much faster and therefore reduces production costs. The sensor is accurate to within /spl plusmn/0.5/spl deg/C (3/spl sigma/) from -50/spl deg/C to 120/spl deg/C.     

A low-voltage CMOS bandgap reference

The CMOS bandgap voltage reference described here uses the bipolar substrate-transistor and the bipolar-like source-to-drain transfer characteristics of MOS transistors in weak inversion to implement a voltage source that is proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT). A first version of PTAT source is derived from a circuit described previously. A second version is based on a novel cell that can be stacked to obtain the desired voltage. Both versions operate down to 1.3 V with a current drain below 1 /spl mu/A. A stability of 3 mV over 100/spl deg/C has been obtained with a few nonadjusted samples. Experimental results suggest some possible improvements to extend this stability to every circuit.     

A five-terminal plus or minus 15-V monolithic voltage regulator

A five-terminal /spl plusmn/15-V monolithic voltage regulator has been developed that incorporates internal frequency compensation and internally provides a /spl plusmn/1 percent output voltage tolerance. In addition, a thermally symmetric layout design of the chip has been used to eliminate the detrimental effects of thermal feedback on the die and ensure that the complementary tracking output voltages will be independent of the power dissipation in the series pass power transistors. Complete fault protection is accomplished by providing the power transistors with good dc safe operating area, internally limiting the short circuit output currents, and accurately limiting the junction temperature to within 10/spl deg/C of the specified maximum limit. Also, a new Zener diode geometry is employed that significantly reduces the noise associated with the reference voltage.     

Limits of temperature drift in noncompensated DC amplifiers

Temperature-stability limits of differential amplifiers consisting of two bipolar transistors mounted in tight thermal contact are discussed. No external temperature compensation or stabilization methods are provided. It is shown that the temperature drift of the input difference (offset) voltage is equal to about 3.3 to 3.9 /spl mu/V//spl deg/K per 1-mV difference (offset) voltage at room temperature (300/spl deg/K). This value seems to depend little on the transistor type used.     

1 V CMOS current reference with 50 ppm//spl deg/C temperature coefficient

A CMOS current reference circuit is presented, which can work properly with a supply voltage higher than 1 V. By compensating the temperature performance of the resistor, this circuit gives out a current with a temperature coefficient of 50 ppm//spl deg/C over the temperature range of (0/spl deg/C, 110/spl deg/C) and a 0.5% variation for a supply voltage of 1 to 2.3 V.     

A low-voltage low-power voltage reference based on subthreshold MOSFETs

In this work, a new low-voltage low-power CMOS voltage reference independent of temperature is presented. It is based on subthreshold MOSFETs and on compensating a PTAT-based variable with the gate-source voltage of a subthreshold MOSFET. The circuit, designed with a standard 1.2-/spl mu/m CMOS technology, exhibits an average voltage of about 295 mV with an average temperature coefficient of 119 ppm//spl deg/C in the range -25 to +125/spl deg/C. A brief study of gate-source voltage behavior with respect to temperature in subthreshold MOSFETs is also reported.     

A precision reference voltage source

With increasing temperature the base-emitter voltage of a transistor with a constant current decreases, while the difference in base-emitter voltages of two identical (integrated) transistors having a constant current ratio increases. From the sum of the two voltages a nearly temperature- independent output voltage is obtained if this sum equals the gap voltage of silicon. A reference voltage source of 10 V based on the principle is described. The reference part of the circuit is an integrated circuit, and thin-film resistors with a small relative temperature coefficient are used. An operational amplifier and a few resistors and capacitors complete the circuit. The source has a parabolic temperature characteristic and the temperature peak can be controlled by resistor adjustment. A change of /spl plusmn/10 K in respect of the peak temperature causes an output voltage change of -250 /spl mu/V, while a change of /spl plusmn/30 K causes a change of -2.2 mV. A long-term stability of 10 ppm/month was measured. The circuit can compete with the best available Zener diode sources, and has the added advantage that practically no selection is necessary.     

Low-voltage temperature sensor for micro-power harvesters in silicon-on-sapphire CMOS

A low-voltage temperature sensor designed for MEMS power harvesting systems is fabricated. The core of the sensor is a bandgap voltage reference circuit operating with a supply voltage in the range 1-1.5 V. The prototype was fabricated on a conventional 0.5 /spl mu/m silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) process. The sensor design consumes 15 /spl mu/A of current at 1 V. The internal reference voltage is 550 mV. The temperature sensor has a digital square wave output the frequency of which is proportional to temperature. A linear model of the dependency of output frequency with temperature has a conversion factor of 1.6 kHz//spl deg/C. The output is also independent of supply voltage in the range 1-1.5 V. Measured results and targeted applications for the proposed circuit are reported.     

5 V temperature regulated voltage reference

A 5 V internally temperature regulated voltage reference integrated circuit, which achieves 0.3 ppm//spl deg/C TC over the temperature range -55/spl deg/C to 125/spl deg/C, is described. It is built using a buried zener reference in a dielectrically isolated complementary bipolar process which employs laser trimmed NiCr thin film resistors and a high thermal resistance epoxy die attach.     

A new curvature-corrected bandgap reference

A bandgap-voltage reference implemented with a new accurate circuit configuration for compensating the thermal nonlinearity of the base-emitter voltage is described. With this device, a temperature coefficient of 0.5 ppm//spl deg/C over the temperature range -25 to +85/spl deg/C has been achieved. The minimum required supply voltage amounts to only 5.5 V.     

A high-speed high-density silicon 8/spl times/8-bit parallel multiplier

An 8/spl times/8-bit parallel multiplier with submicrometer gate lengths has been fabricated using silicon NMOS technology. The multiplication time is 9.5 ns. This corresponds to an average loaded gate delay in the multiplier circuit of 244 ps/gate, which the authors believe is the shortest gate delay for MOS multiplier circuits demonstrated to date. The power dissipation is 600 mW at a supply voltage of 5 V. The multiplier circuit has a total of 1427 transistors in an active area of 0.61/spl times/0.58 mm/SUP 2/, corresponding to a gate density of 1125 gates/mm/SUP 2/.     

A 32-bit execution unit in an advanced NMOS technology

The circuit and design of an experimental 32-bit execution unit are described. It is fabricated in a scaled NMOS single-layer poly-technology with 2-/spl mu/m minimum gate length and low-ohmic polycide for gates and interconnections. The chip (25000 transistors, 16 mm/SUP 2/, 61 pins) is designed with a high degree of regularity and modularity. The circuit performs logic and arithmetic operations and has an on-chip control ROM for instruction decoding. It operates with a single 5-V supply voltage. Measurements resulted in a typical power dissipation of 750 mW and a maximum operation frequency of 6.5 MHz. At this frequency a 32/spl times/32 bit multiplication is performed in less than 5.5 /spl mu/s.     

A realization of a below-1-V operational and 30-MS/s sample-and-hold IC with a 56-dB signal-to-noise ratio by applying the current-based circuit approach

This paper demonstrates the low-voltage and low-power operation of a MOS sample-and-hold circuit while preserving speed and accuracy, aiming at the realization of a pipelined low-voltage and low-power analog-to-digital converter on a system large-scale integrated circuit. It was fabricated by utilizing 0.35-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The main feature of this circuit is that all the input, signals, and output are in the current form. The circuit consists of simple current mirrors. In order to eliminate the signal-dependent current transfer ratio error, voltages at the drain terminals of mirror transistors are fixed as constant. A source degeneration resistor, which is a transistor in the triode operational region, is connected to a mirror transistor in order to alleviate the influence of the threshold and transconductance parameter variations. Control signals are boosted in voltage and applied to the gate of switch NMOS transistors in the signal path in order to reduce the on-resistance of analog switches. A differential configuration is adopted throughout the entire circuit and effectively cancels switch feedthrough errors. As a result, a 30-MS/s operation with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 56 dB from a 1-V supply has been achieved, when the input current is /spl plusmn/200 /spl mu/A. The chip even operated down to 0.85 V with a 20-MHz clock. The SNR was measured as 50 dB with an input current of /spl plusmn/100 /spl mu/A.     

A Pipelined 330-MHz Multiplier

An 8X8-bit multiplier test circuit developed in a 1-/spl mu/m NMOS technology is described. To achieve a high throughput rate, extensive pipelining is used in a semi-systolic fashion. It is shown that this saves area and allows for shorter cycle times compared to a pure systolic array. Problems with widely distributed lines (broadcasting) are avoided by a novel carry-save-adder cell. The data inputs and outputs are ECL compatible. The circuit contains 5480 MOSFET's in an active area of 0.6 mm/sup 2/. Effective channel lengths of 0.9 and 1.1 /spl mu/m are utilized for the enhancement and depletion transistors with a gate oxide thickness of 12.5 nm. The power dissipation is 1.5 W at a supply voltage of 3 V. The test chip operates up to a clock frequency of 330 MHz at room temperature and up to 600 MHz with liquid nitrogen cooling. This demonstrates the applicability of large-scale integrated MOS circuits in a frequency range of several hundred megahertz.     

A CMOS piecewise curvature-compensated voltage reference

This paper presents a novel approach to the design of a high-precision CMOS voltage reference. The proposed circuit utilizes MOS transistors instead of bipolar transistors to generate positive and negative temperature coefficient (TC) currents summed up to a resistive load to generate low TC reference voltage. A piecewise curvature-compensation technique is also used to reduce the TC of the reference voltage within a wider temperature range. The output reference voltage can be adjusted in a wide range according to different system requirements by setting different parameters such as resistors and transistor aspect ratios. The proposed circuit is designed for TSMC 0.6 μm standard CMOS process. Spectre-based simulations demonstrate that the TC of the reference voltage is 4.3 ppm/°C with compensation compared with 107 ppm/°C without compensation in the temperature ranges from −15 to 95 °C using a 1.5 V supply voltage.     

A temperature- and process-tolerant 64K EEPROM

A 64K EEPROM is described with emphasis on the circuit techniques used to achieve extended temperature operation. The core architecture is considered and a suitable byte layout which eliminates possible punchthrough in the memory cell is shown. A feedback-controlled substrate bias generator is described which delivers -1.0 V/spl plusmn/0.05 V and reduces significantly field transistor leakages. In addition, a /spl plusmn/1% stable voltage reference is shown to accurately control the programming voltage for the memory array to 20 V/spl plusmn/1 V over the full military temperature range (-55/spl deg/-+125/spl deg/C) and /spl plusmn/10% power-supply variation. A process-insensitive write timing pulse trimmed by E2 fuses is discussed, as is the PAGE-MODE WRITE circuitry in relation to the bitline latches.     

Low-power low-voltage reference using peaking current mirror circuit

A low-power low-voltage bandgap reference using the peaking current mirror circuit with MOSFETs operated in the subthreshold region is presented. A demonstrative chip was fabricated in 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS technology, achieving the minimum supply voltage 1.4 V, the reference voltage around 580 mV, the temperature coefficient 62 ppm//spl deg/C, the supplied current 2.3 /spl mu/A, and the power supply noise rejection ratio of -84 dB at 1 kHz.