An Ultra Low-Power Programmable Voltage Reference for Power-Constrained Electronic Systems

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel architecture for the generation of a programmable voltage reference: the background-calibrated (BC)-PVR. Our mixed-signal architecture periodically calibrates a static ultra low-power voltage reference generator, from an accurate bandgap reference. The portion of the chip used for the calibration can be powered down with a programmable duty-cycle. The system aims to fully exploit the small temperature derivative vs time <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$D_{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of several application domains to minimize the average current consumption. The BC-PVR has been designed and implemented in TSMC 55-nm CMOS technology, and it achieves the largest reported programming reference output range [0.42 - 2.52] V, over the temperature range [−20, 85] °C. The duty-cycle mode allows nanoampere current consumption, and the large design flexibility permits to optimize the system performance for the specific application. These features make the BC-PVR very well-suited for power-constrained electronic systems.