Thermally Reliable Ultra-Low-Power Voltage Reference to Regulator Converter

A regulated power supply with ultra-low-power consumption, high current efficiency, line, load and thermal stability is an essential part of any high precision electronic system with stringent power budget such as biomedical sensors or military surveillance systems. In this paper, we propose an ultra-low-power, MOSFET only, voltage reference to regulator convertor, proficient to work below 1 V with reduced power consumption. The proposed idea incorporates the provision to integrate any voltage reference module to a comparator-based circuit so as to transform it to a voltage regulator having similar temperature coefficient (TC) and line regulation as that of the interfaced voltage reference. It is also able to produce a reliable output accounting to load fluctuations. The circuit is simulated in 0.18 mu m CMOS technology using Cadence Virtuoso simulation suit. The complete circuit was found to draw a quiescent current of 319.9 pA with a notable current efficiency of 99.99997% at 27 degrees C on driving a load of 1 mA along with a Power Supply Rejection Ratio (PSRR) of -117 dB additional to that of the reference. The proposed circuit will occupy an area of 0.00064 mm(2) and offer a TC as low as 1.7077 ppm/degrees C. The whole MOS approach facilitates a reduction in die area and process simplicity.