Abstract
An accurate indication that the bandgap voltage reference (BGR) circuit is settled on its nominal value is essential in analog or mixed signal systems. In this paper, a generic method for accurate bandgap voltage reference (BGR) Ready-Indication (RI) is proposed. A RI signal shows that the BGR operates correctly but also is used to enable PoR circuits when those employ the bandgap voltage to generate the required thresholds. In many low power applications, several systems are periodically switched on and off to save power and to increase battery life. In such systems, most circuits must remain off, while BGR is not in ready mode, saving battery energy. In other critical applications, the Ready-Indicator can ensure that critical systems can be set on and the reference voltage is within the operating range. In this paper, the introduced methodology is applied to different reference voltage generators. Initially, a BGR with Ready-Indication is presented extensively, including post-layout simulations results in 22 nm, while thereafter, the study of this method is extended in other BGR topologies. The universality of the proposed method is proved by verifying the operation in all the BGR topologies under study covering designs in 22 nm and 65 nm and with supply voltages 1.8 V, 1 V, 0.55 V.
Highlights
The Bandgap Voltage Reference (BGR) is a circuit widely used in most systems on chips producing a reference voltage, theoretically independent of the PVT variations
Older bandgap voltage reference (BGR) topologies generate a constant voltage reference Vref equal to 1.25 V, by the sum of the diode bandgap voltage and the thermal voltage multiplied by a factor
There has been an increasing interest in BiCMOS or CMOS circuits where the supply voltage tends to be under 1 V and the reference voltage must be below 1 V
Summary
The Bandgap Voltage Reference (BGR) is a circuit widely used in most systems on chips producing a reference voltage, theoretically independent of the PVT variations. The advantages of the introduced method are, first its high accuracy of RI signal, second, it can be employed with already known BGRs from the literature, and third, it can be used to improve even more the accuracy in other already proposed PoR circuits [3]. Another benefit is that with its flexibility it can be combined with already published in the literature BGR topologies and constitute a substantial solution to provide an accurate RI signal without decreasing the performance of an already efficient BGR.
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