Design of a wide-swing cascode beta multiplier current reference

by 1977- Miser, Bradley David

This thesis presents a study of the design of a wide-swing, cascode ? multiplier current reference to be used as a biasing circuit. The current reference has been fabricated in a 0.5µm CMOS technology. First, a review of wide-swing cascode current mirrors and current-source self-biasing is covered. Then, the process of designing a current reference that is both wide-swing and has high output resistance is presented. Simulation and measurement results from the current reference are detailed. Improvements upon the current reference are also suggested. iii