6.301 Solid-State Circuits Recitation 13: Current Sources and Current Mirrors Prof. Joel L. Dawson Many times in complex analog systems, it is useful to have a current source. Consider our “active loading” concept from the last recitation: Remember we speculated that if we could make the collector current of Q 1 match I LOAD , this might be a way to get a very high gain stage. Infinite gain, even, were it not for base width modulation. Now we know that transistors themselves make very good dependent current sources. This suggests their use as good independent current sources, provided that we fix the base-emitter voltage in some sensible way. One sensible way that we looked at as follows: Large voltage drop here means VBE variations not important. I LOAD ↓ V 0 Q 1 V B − + I OUT −V EE ↓ ⇒ I OUT ↓ V CC
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6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Many times in complex analog systems, it is useful to have a current source. Consider our “activeloading” concept from the last recitation:
Remember we speculated that if we could make the collector current of Q1match ILOAD , this mightbe a way to get a very high gain stage. Infinite gain, even, were it not for base width modulation.
Now we know that transistors themselves make very good dependent current sources. This suggeststheir use as good independent current sources, provided that we fix the base-emitter voltage in somesensible way.
One sensible way that we looked at as follows:
Large voltage drop here meansVBE variations not important.
ILOAD↓
V0Q1
VB−+
IOUT
−VEE
↓⇒
IOUT↓
VCC
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Page 2
This is a fine idea when you have a lot of voltage headroom. Today we’re going to look atalternatives, though, that often prove to be more useful.
CLASS EXERCISE
Compute I0 for the following circuit:
(Workspace)
And just like that, we discover the current mirror. It’s a basic analog building block, and is one waythat we have for building a good current source:
Q2
↓ I0
Q1
10k
10.6V
Q2Q1
↓ I0
⇒↓ I0
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Page 3
Notice how this technique solves a thorny problem for using transistors as a current source. We’vealways avoided doing things like:
Because of the uncertainty in IS . But if Q1and Q2 are matched, we don’t care what the exact value ofIS is. We establish a reference current using the power supply and Q1 , and use the nonlinearity of theI1 −VBE1 relationship to “undo” the nonlinearity of the VBE2 − I2 relationship. In other words, IC1 getsmirrored into the collector of IC2 .
Remember that IS = AE ⋅qDnni
2
WBNB
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
, where AE is the emitter area. Accordingly, we can get some
variety in our current mirrors by sizing the transistors differently:
I0 = IseqVBkT
↓
VB+−
AE2 = 10AE1
I0 = 10 ⋅ IREF↓
AE1
IREF↓
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
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This idea of using matched devices also comes in MOSFET flavors:
I0 = IREF ⋅
WL
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟ 2
WL
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟ 1
Matching
Now we agreed that if the devices in a bipolar current mirror are matched, we have close to identicalcurrents in the collectors.
ID =µnCox
2WL
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟VGS −VTH( )2
D
S
GWL
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟ 1
WL
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟ 2
IREF↓I0↓
I2
Q2VBQ1
↓I1IC1 = IS1 exp
qVBkT
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
IC2 = IS2 expqVBkT
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Page 5
We can conclude that for matching, we have:
IC1 − IC2 = IS1 − IS2( )exp qVBkT
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
ΔICIC
=ΔISIS
Some common current mirrors:
Simple Current Mirror
We calculate the error according to I0 =IR1+ 2
β
Error = 2β
R0 = r0 [Output impedance]
I0
→
I0β
IR↓
↓I0
KCL : IR = I0 +2I0β
= I0 1+2β
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟= I0
β + 2β
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
I0 = IRβ
β + 2⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Page 6
Can prevent thermal runaway, boost output impedance, and reduce sensitivity to matching by usingemitter degeneration:
Buffered Current Mirror
IB =2I0
β +1( )β
IR = I0 +2I0
β β +1( )
I0 =IR
1+ 2β β +1( )
Error = 2β β +1( ) ≈
2β 2
R0 = r0
R0 ≈ rπ RE + 1+ gm rπ RE( )( )r0
Error = 2β
I0
RERE
IR ↓↓
I0β
I0β
→←
I0↓
↓I0
IB→
IR↓
6.301 Solid-State CircuitsRecitation 13: Current Sources and Current MirrorsProf. Joel L. Dawson
Page 7
Widlar Current Mirror (How to get very small output currents)
KVL :VBE1 = VBE2 + I2RE
VT lnI1IS
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟= VT ln
I2IS
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟+ I2RE
VT lnI1I2
⎛⎝⎜
⎞⎠⎟= I2RE
So if, for instance, we wanted I1 = 1mA and I2 = 1µA :