A Review of CMOS Currente References

Abstract

A current reference is able to provide a precise and accurate current for other circuits inside a chip. This type of electronic circuit is employed as a building block in numerous analog and mixed-signal circuits. Moreover, it is a fundamental component of current-mode circuits. This work discusses the basic and essential concepts of designing CMOS integrated current references. A review of conventional topologies is presented, including current mirrors and current references. Temperature dependence is discussed, along with PTAT and CTAT topologies, and some low-power/low-voltage implementations are also presented.