Low-voltage Current Mirror with extended

Bandwidth
Maneesha Gupta Abhinav Malhotra Anu Malik
Professor, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, [email protected] [email protected]
Delhi, India
[email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, we present an improved low voltage and reduced power consumption. Most importantly, it is suit-
current mirror with enhanced bandwidth. The bandwidth en- able to work at very low and high voltages with constant
hancement is obtained by using a compensation resistor between current. From the circuit, when Vout increases to Vdd , then
the gates of the primary transistor pair. In this technique, a
carefully determined resistance is used in the diode connected the output current increases due to channel length modulation.
MOSFET of the current mirror for enhancing the bandwidth. However, due to increase in voltage, M4 draws a greater cur-
Active realization of the compensation resistance using a MOS- rent and hence current flowing through M1 decreases. Hence,
FET (operating in the triode region) has also been applied to the output current is stabilized and the output impedance is
the low voltage current mirror[1] circuit. The proposed circuits increased. Similarly, when Vout approaches zero, M3 sources
have been simulated using SPICE for 0.18 µm CMOS technology
and the obtained results are compared with their uncompensated a much larger current and hence the current through M1
topologies to show their effectiveness. The Bandwidth increased increases, again stabilizing the output current [1].
from 597MHz in uncompensated circuit to 1.31GHz (doubled) in The small signal model of the uncompensated circuit is
the compensated circuit. shown in Fig. 2. Here, the effect of Cgd has been neglected
I. I NTRODUCTION for all transistors. We perform AC analysis on the circuit
to understand its high-frequency behaviour. The AC analysis
Current Mirror circuits are pivotal building blocks which equations for the uncompensated circuit are shown below(refer
find application in almost all analog circuits, including realiza- Fig. 2):
tion of CCIIs, OTAs and OMAs[2]. High speed ICs (Integrated
Circuits) require wide-band current mirrors to avoid any kind Iin = Vin [sC1 + gm1 ] + (gm3 + gm4 )Vout (1)
of distortion in wide-band high speed signals.
Present industry trends require low voltage, high speed and
high accuracy current mirrors. In light of the above needs, Iout = gm2 Vin (2)
recently a current mirror circuit was proposed in [1], which
caters to the low voltage, high output impedance requirement. Vout = −(gm2 Vin )/(gds2 + sC2 ) (3)
However, this mirror suffers from a low bandwidth, thereby
limiting its high frequency performance. Using equations 1 and 3, we get:
This paper presents a technique to enhance the bandwidth
Iin = Vin (sC1 +gm1 )+(gm3 +gm4 )(−gm2 Vin )/(gds2 +sC2 )
of low voltage current mirror, which is proposed in [1].
(4)
This technique involves introduction of a passive or active
Dividing equation 2 by equation 4, we get
resistor([3], [2]), to introduce a zero in the transfer function
of the circuit, that cancels with a dominant pole, on careful Iout [gm2 (sC2 + gds2 )]
= (5)
choice of the value of the resistor. The paper is organized as Iin [(sC1 + gm1 )(sC2 + gds2 ) − gm2 (gm3 + gm4 )]
follows: The small signal analysis of the circuit proposed in This is a double pole, single zero system with poles and
[1] is discussed in the next section, followed by the application zeros dependent on device parameters.
of the resistive compensation technique to the current mirror Assuming gm1 = gm2 (i.e. matched M1 and M2), the circuit
circuit[1]. Section 4 presents the SPICE simulations and has a stable response for:
comparative results.
II. H IGH F REQUENCY A NALYSIS OF THE CURRENT gds2 ≥ (gm3 + gm4 ) (6)
MIRROR PROPOSED IN [1] Applying this boundary condition, we get:
The current mirror proposed by Monfaredi et al, is depicted Iout [gm2 (sC2 + gds2 )]
in Fig. 1. This current mirror circuit has many advantages over = 2 (7)
Iin [s C1 C2 + s(C1 gds2 + gm1 C2 )]
traditional current mirrors, including higher output impedance,
Neglecting channel length modulation in transistor M2,
978-1-4673-0934-9/12/$31.00 c 2012 IEEE hence setting gds2 = 0, we get:
 that M7 and M1 have identical Vgs . For the optimum case of
Iout gm2 R=(1/gm1 ), It is zero[4].
= (8)
Iin (sC1 + gm1 ) Resistance of M5 in the linear region is given as:
where C1 = Cgs1 + Cgs2 + Cds1 + Cds3 + Cds4 , which is 1
equal to, (2Cgs + Cds1 + Cds3 + Cds4 ), for M1-M2 matched. rds5 = (16)
µCox ( W
L 5 gs5 − Vth )
) (V
III. A PPLICATION OF R ESISTIVE C OMPENSATION From equation 16, it can be seen that the bandwidth can be
TECHNIQUE TO THE LOW VOLTAGE CURRENT MIRROR [1] controlled by varying the active resistance rds5 .
In the present paper, resistive compensation technique (both
IV. S IMULATION R ESULTS
active and passive) has been applied to increase the bandwidth
of the above current mirror. On applying resistive compensa- All the circuits proposed in this paper have been simulated
tion (Fig. 3), the small signal model at the input node of the in SPICE for 0.18µm technology for a supply voltage of
current mirror circuit changes, which is reflected in Fig. 4. 1.5V. The input AC current is kept at 10µA The frequency
Referring to Fig. 4, one can derive the following AC analysis response for the uncompensated circuit is shown in Fig. 6.
equations: The 3-dB bandwidth is 597MHz. On passive compensation,
the Bandwidth is more than doubled (by a factor of 2.2) to
1.31GHz in Fig. 7. A similar improvement is reflected in the
Iin = Vin sC1 + (gm3 + gm4 )Vout + Vgs1 (sCgs1 + gm1 ) (9) Active realization of the compensated circuit, depicted in Fig.
8. The peaks in the response occur due to introduction of
Vin zeros by the compensation resistor. These can be reduced by
Vgs1 = (10) proper choice of the compensation resistance that tracks the
(1 + sRCgs1 )
trans-conductance of the transistor.
Vout = −(gm2 Vin )/(gds2 + sC2 ) (11) V. C ONCLUSION
Using equations 9, 10 and 11, we get The bandwidth of a low voltage current mirror[1] is en-
Vin (sCgs1 + gm1 ) (gm3 + gm4 )(−gm2 Vin )
hanced, making it suitable for high speed circuits, operating in
Iin = Vin sC1 + + (12)
(1 + sRCgs1 ) (gds2 + sC2 ) the frequency range of GHz. A compensation resistor between
the gates of primary transistor, enhances the bandwidth. An
Also,
active realization of the compensated circuited is presented that
Iout = gm2 Vin (13)
overcomes the drawbacks of passive counterpart. The small
On dividing equation 13 by equation 12, and putting R= signal analysis and SPICE simulations quantify the proposed
(1/gm1 ), in this equation, we get: circuits and their operation.
Iout gm2 (1 + sRCgs1 )(gds2 + sC2 ) ACKNOWLEDGMENT
=
Iin (1 + sRCgs1 )[sC1 (sC2 + gds2 ) + gm1 (gds2 + sC2 ) − gm2 (gm3 + gm4 )]
(14) The authors would like to thank Ms. Urvashi Singh, Teach-
Applying the boundary condition (equation 6), and neglecting ing Research Fellow (TRF), Netaji Subhas Institute of Tech-
the effect of channel length modulation in M2 (set gds2 = 0), nology, Delhi for her valuable inputs during the course of this
we get: project.

Iout gm2 R EFERENCES

= (15)
Iin (sC1 + gm1 ) [1] K. Monfaredi, H. Baghtash, and S. Azhari, “A novel low voltage current
compensated high performance current mirror/nic,” in Quality Electronic
where C1 = Cgs2 + Cds1 + Cds3 + Cds4 , which is equal Design (ISQED), 2010 11th International Symposium on, march 2010,
to, (Cgs + Cds1 + Cds3 + Cds4 ), for M1-M2 matched. This pp. 437 –442.
[2] M. Gupta, P. Aggarwal, P. Singh, and N. Jindal, “Low voltage current
capacitance is approximately half of the value we found mirrors with enhanced bandwidth,” Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal
in the uncompensated circuit (refer equation 8). Hence, the Processing, vol. 59, pp. 97–103, 2009, 10.1007/s10470-008-9241-2.
bandwidth is approximately doubled. Hence, we observe that, [Online]. Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10470-008-9241-2
[3] T. Voo and C. Toumazou, “High-speed current mirror resistive compen-
by introduction of a resistor, a dominant pole is canceled by sation technique,” Electronics Letters, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 248 –250, Feb.
a zero, thereby extending the bandwidth. 1995.
Active compensation for the current circuit is shown in Fig. [4] T. Voo and C. Toumazou, “Precision temperature stabilised tunable cmos
current-mirror for filter applications,” Electronics Letters, vol. 32, no. 2,
5. Active realization of the compensation resistance using a pp. 105 –106, jan 1996.
MOSFET M5 operating in the linear region and M7 operating
in the saturation region is shown. The need for active real-
ization stems from the fact that the temperature dependence
of passive resistors does not track trans-conductance of the
MOS transistors. It is fed at the drain of M6 which controls
the gate voltage of M5. It is taken out at the drain of M7, so
 Fig. 1. Current Mirror Proposed in [1]

Fig. 2. Small Signal model of the circuit proposed in [1]: (a) Input node (b) Output node (c) Transistor M2

Fig. 3. Resistive compensation applied to current mirror proposed in [1]

Fig. 4. Small Signal model of the circuit in Fig. 3: (a) Input Node (b) Output Node (c) Transistor M2

Fig. 5. Active Compensation applied to the circuit proposed in [1]

Fig. 6. Frequency Response of uncompensated current mirror ([1]) shown in Fig. 1

Fig. 7. Frequency response of the current mirror with bandwidth enhancing resistance (passive)

Fig. 8. Frequency response of the current mirror circuit with active compensation