Characterization of a current-mode bandgap circuit structure for high-precision reference applications

In this paper, the well-known equation, which explicitly shows the temperature behavior of the I_C-V_BE characteristics of the transistor, is applied to analyze a specific bandgap reference circuit. The theoretical analysis clearly characterizes some important features of the circuit, such as the value of the bandgap output, the relationship of the inflection point and the circuit parameters, the curvature of the bandgap curve and so on. Spectre simulations show a good consistency of the analysis. Based on the analysis, a new approach for designing high-precision references is also proposed