- Patent Title: Low-headroom constant current source for high-current applications
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Application No.: US14939081Application Date: 2015-11-12
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Publication No.: US09661695B1Publication Date: 2017-05-23
- Inventor: Guangjie Cai , Ho Ming (Karen) Wan , Chun Fai Wong , Tai Yin Wong
- Applicant: Hong Kong Applied Science & Technology Research Institute Company Limited
- Applicant Address: HK Hong Kong
- Assignee: Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited
- Current Assignee: Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute Company Limited
- Current Assignee Address: HK Hong Kong
- Agency: g Patent LLC
- Agent Stuart T. Auvinen
- Main IPC: H03F3/04
- IPC: H03F3/04 ; H03F3/30 ; H05B33/08 ; H03K17/687 ; H03F3/45

Abstract:
A low-headroom current driver does not use an op amp or resistor. A sensing transistor having its source connected to a drain of an output transistor senses variations in an output current. The gate, source, and drain voltages of the sensing transistor are mirrored to a sense mirror transistor to control a sense current. The sense current is mirrored to a reference source transistor to generate a mirrored sense current. An error between the mirrored sense current and a fixed reference current is stored as charge on an error-storing capacitor. The stored error charge creates a negative-feedback compensation current that adjusts a gate voltage generated by a feedback-driving transistor. The adjusted gate voltage controls the gate of the output transistor to compensate for the sensed variation in output current. The sensing current is also compensated using a sense-mirror tail transistor connected to the sense mirror transistor.
Public/Granted literature
- US20170142786A1 Low-Headroom Constant Current Source for High-Current Appliations Public/Granted day:2017-05-18
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