A low-voltage low-power CMOS voltage reference based on subthreshold MOSFETs

This paper describes a CMOS voltage reference using only resistors and transistors working in weak inversion, without the need for any bipolar transistors. The voltage reference is designed and fabricated by a 0.18 mu m CMOS process. The experimental results show that the proposed voltage reference has a temperature coefficient of 370 ppm/degrees C at a 0.8 V supply voltage over the temperature range of -35 to 85 degrees C and a 0.1% variation in supply voltage from 0.8 to 3 V. Furthermore, the supply current is only 1.5 mu A at 0.8 V supply voltage.