A compact low-voltage first-order temperature-compensated CMOS current reference

This paper presents the design of two new low-voltage first-order temperature compensated CMOS current references. To achieve compact topologies able to operate under low voltage with low power consumption, they are based on the simplest approach of cross-coupled current mirrors, and compensation is obtained by introducing a temperature dependent current mirror ratio. Results for 0.18 μm CMOS implementations show that the proposed 1 μA references operate with supplies down to 1 V showing temperature drifts below 238 ppm/°C over the (-40 to 120°C) range, which makes them suitable for low-cost portable applications.