Low-power Relaxation Oscillator with Temperature-compensated Thyristor Decision Elements

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Marcel Jotschke - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Gokulkumar Palanisamy - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Wilmar Carvajal Ossa - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Harsha Prabakaran - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Jeongwook Koh - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Matthias Kuhl - , University of Freiburg (Author)
  • Wolfgang H. Krautschneider - , Hamburg University of Technology (Author)
  • Torsten Reich - , Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (Author)
  • Christian Mayr - , Chair of Highly-Parallel VLSI Systems and Neuro-Microelectronics (Author)

Abstract

This paper presents a low-power 140 kHz relaxation oscillator (ROSC) for low-frequency clock generators and timers. In voltage-mode ROSCs, unavoidable shunt current consumption results from voltage slewing at the integration capacitor. The proposed circuit employs CMOS thyristor-based decision elements which effectively reduce shunt currents by exploiting internal positive feedback. A complementary-to-absolute temperature (CTAT) current reference compensates for the frequency’s temperature sensitivity. In order to achieve high negative temperature coefficient with small area and power overhead, the circuit reuses parts of the positive-to-absolute temperature (PTAT) bias generation block. Moreover, a modified start-up circuit with 3 times faster oscillator power-on is presented. The 0.09 mm 2 oscillator consumes 6.5 nW/kHz at 1.5 V to 2.5 V supply if only the CTAT source is considered, resulting in a power consumption of 907.4 nW at 140 kHz. The measured temperature coefficient of - 514.7 ppm/K in the range of −40 °C to 85 °C shows an improvement of 5.5 times compared to the uncompensated case. A supply sensitivity of 2.62 %/V, a frequency resolution of 2.67 kHz/step, and an average clock jitter of 6.02 ns are achieved. The oscillator is embedded in an ultra-low power system-on-chip for autonomous environmental sensing.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)131-144
Number of pages14
JournalAnalog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing
Volume116
Issue number3
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023
Peer-reviewedYes

Keywords

Keywords

  • CMOS thyristor, Low power, Relaxation oscillator