A 156pW Gate-Leakage Based Voltage/Current Reference for Low-Power IoT Systems.

The paper presents a sub-nW gate-leakage based voltage and current reference in a single circuit whose reference values are scalable and doesn't incorporate start-up circuits or resistors in the architecture. The power consumption of the proposed circuit increases by only 2.1x in the temperature range of -55 degrees C to 100 degrees C, unlike conventional voltage/current references where the power consumption increases exponentially w.r.t temperature. Implemented in 90nm technology, the proposed voltage reference (current reference) achieves posttrim typical accuracy of 22ppm/degrees C (58 ppm/oC) and worst-case accuracy of 71ppm/degrees C (78 ppm/degrees C). Excellent line sensitivities of 0.029%/V and 0.059%/V are observed for voltage and current reference respectively, in a supply range of 1V - 3V. Without any start-up circuit, the observed 99% settling times for voltage and current reference are 1.92ms and 2.526ms respectively. The area occupied by the total circuit is 0.0015mm(2), while the power consumption is 156pW at typical corner, 27 degrees C and 1V supply.