A novel two stage cross coupled architecture for low voltage low power voltage reference generator

Abstract

Sensor network architectures have gained significant attention in acquiring data over widespread areas. To avoid wiring and power complexities, self-powered operation is desirable in these sensors. For this purpose, low voltage and low power characteristics of the internal electronic building blocks is of significant importance. Since sensor architectures usually require voltage reference circuitry, in this paper, a low voltage, low power bandgap reference circuit block is presented. Using a new two stage topology, the line sensitivity is reduced to a significantly low value of 0.28%/V over a wider power supply range of 0.2 V to 2 V. Due to the use of MOSFETs in the subthreshold region, low voltage and low power operation of about 41 pW at 0.2 V is obtained. Furthermore by introducing a novel cross coupled architecture, the temperature coefficient is enhanced considerably. An average temperature coefficient of 247 ppm/°C is obtained at different corners. The performance of the architecture is studied in a 0.18 µm process using post layout and Monte Carlo evaluations. The evaluation results show improvements in both line sensitivity and temperature coefficients compared with previous work. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.