ALL NPN-TRANSISTOR PTAT CURRENT SOURCE

WIPO Patent Application WO2006051486

A3

The present invention relates to an improved PTAT current source and a respective method for generating a PTAT current. Opportune collector currents are generated and forced in two transistors exploiting the logarithmic relation between the base-emitter voltage and the collector current of a transistor. A resistor connected between the base terminals of said two transistors senses a voltage difference between the base-emitter voltages of the two transistors, which can have either the same or different areas. A fraction of the current flowing through the resistor is forced into a transistor collector and mirrored by an output transistor for providing an output current. By this principle an all npn-transistor PTAT current source can be provided that does not need pup transistors as in conventional PTAT current sources. The invention is generally applicable to a variety of different types of integrated circuits needing a PTAT current reference.

TRIPODI LORENZO (NL)
SANDULEANU MIHAI A T (NL)
BLANKEN PIETER G (NL)

PCT/IB2005/053670

October 05, 2006

November 08, 2005

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KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV (NL)
TRIPODI LORENZO (NL)
SANDULEANU MIHAI A T (NL)
BLANKEN PIETER G (NL)

G05F3/22

US4672304A	1987-06-09
US20030201791A1	2003-10-30

FABRE A: "BIDIRECTIONAL CURRENT-CONTROLLED PTAT CURRENT SOURCE", IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS I: FUNDAMENTAL THEORY AND APPLICATIONS, IEEE INC. NEW YORK, US, vol. 41, no. 12, 1 December 1994 (1994-12-01), pages 922 - 925, XP000496851, ISSN: 1057-7122

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