Method for implementation of a low noise, high accuracy current mirror for audio applications

• US 20060119496A1
• Filed: 12/09/2004
• Published: 06/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dialog Semiconductor GmbH (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dialog Semiconductor GmbH (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Inventors: Tester, David, Hague, Gary, Medwed, Jorg
• Granted Patent: US 7,091,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 341/144
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 3/262 using field-effect transistors only

Abstract

An accurate high current mirror circuit produces a mirrored current that matches an input current to produce an accuracy at the output of a subsequent stage of amplification of greater than 0.01%. A plurality of transistor devices are arranged in a symmetrical configuration and divided into two groups. The transistors in each of the two groups are connected in parallel to produce a high mirror current from a high input current. A distribution of a source voltage produces the same source voltage at each of the plurality of transistors. An input current metallization and a mirror current metallization are formed within the symmetrical configuration to have a same value of impedance. A plurality of P-channel transistors within the current mirror circuit control a voltage of a point on the input metallization to be the same as a reference voltage thus causing the mirror current to be referenced around the reference voltage.

Claims

1. An accurate high current circuit, comprising:

a) a current mirror circuit;

b) a first high current circuit comprising a first plurality of transistor devices connected in parallel and a second high current circuit comprising a second plurality of transistor devices connected in parallel;

c) a first high current interconnect metallization connected to the first plurality of transistor devices to receive an input current and a second high current interconnect metallization connected to the second plurality of transistor devices to connect from the second high current circuit an output current equal to said input current;

d) a source voltage distribution circuit distributing a same value of said source voltage to a symmetrical array of transistor devices comprising the first plurality of transistor devices and the second plurality of transistor devices; and

e) said current mirror circuit coupled to said first and second high current circuit controlling the first plurality of transistors devices to have a drain voltage equal to a reference voltage and produces from the second plurality of transistor devices said output current centered around the reference voltage.

2. The circuit of claim 1, wherein said first high current interconnect metallization and said second high current interconnect metallization are metallization formed on a semiconductor substrate to create an impedance of the first high current interconnect metallization that matches the impedance of the second high current interconnect metallization.

3. The circuit of claim 1, wherein said first plurality of transistor devices and said second plurality of transistor devices are intermingled and distributed in said symmetrical array on a semiconductor substrate in a checkerboard fashion around a central source voltage distribution point.

10. The circuit of claim 1, wherein said current mirror circuit further comprises a plurality of P-channel devices coupled to a plurality of N-channel devices in which the plurality P-channel devices are divided into a first parallel group and a second parallel group whereby the gates of the first parallel group are connected to drains of the first plurality of transistor devices of the first high current circuit and the gates of the second parallel group are connected to a said reference voltage to control the output current to be centered around said reference voltage.

11. The circuit of claim 10, wherein said first parallel group and said second parallel group of P-channel devices are placed on a semiconductor substrate in a checkerboard arrangement to allow averaging of semiconductor process variations.

4. An accurate high current circuit, comprising:

a) a current mirror circuit;

b) a first high current circuit and a second high current circuit;

c) a first high current metallization and a second high current metallization;

d) a source voltage distribution circuit

e) said current mirror circuit coupled to said first and second high current circuit;

f) said first high current metallization coupled to an output of the first high current circuit and said second high current metallization coupled to the output of the second high current circuit; and

g) said source voltage distribution circuit distributes a same value of source voltage to the first high current circuit and the second high current circuit;

h) said first high current circuit and said second high current circuit each comprise a plurality of transistor devices intermingled and distributed in an array on a semiconductor substrate in a checkerboard fashion around a central source voltage distribution point; and

i) said plurality of transistor devices of said first high current circuit are connected in parallel, whereby drains of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together, gates of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together and sources of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together, and thereby producing said first high current circuit.

5. The circuit of claim 4, wherein said plurality of transistor devices of said second high current circuit are connected in parallel, whereby drains of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together, gates of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together and sources of said plurality of transistor devices are coupled together, and thereby producing said second high current circuit.

6. The circuit of claim 4, wherein said checkerboard fashion averages process variations between said plurality of transistor devices.

7. The circuit of claim 4, wherein said plurality of transistor devices in said first high current circuit is eight, and said plurality of transistors in said second high current circuit is eight.

8. The circuit of claim 4, wherein said plurality of transistor devices in said first high current circuit is fewer than eight, and said plurality of transistors in said second high current circuit is fewer than eight.

9. The circuit of claim 4, wherein said source voltage distribution circuit distributes a same value of source voltage to the sources of said plurality of transistor devices from the central source voltage distribution point centered in the array of said plurality of transistor devices.

12. An audio digital to analog circuit, comprising:

a) a digital to analog converter (DAC);

b) a current mirror circuit;

c) a current to voltage converter;

d) a low pass filter circuit;

e) an amplifier circuit;

f) said DAC produces a first current coupled to said current mirror circuit and a second current from which a mirror current of the first current is subtracted forming a third current coupled to said current to voltage converter; and

g) said current to voltage converter couples a voltage conversion of said third current centered around a reference voltage to said amplifier through the low pass filter.

13. The circuit of claim 12, wherein said first current, said mirror current and said second current are high currents in a magnitude range of approximately a milliampere.

14. The circuit of claim 13, wherein said first current and said mirror current are a same value of current to within an accuracy which produces an amplified accuracy at an output of said amplifier with an input referred accuracy greater than approximately 0.01%.

15. The circuit of claim 12, wherein said DAC is a sigma delta DAC.

16. The circuit of claim 12, wherein said current mirror circuit and said current to voltage converter are referenced to a voltage about which a digital signal input to the DAC converted to an analog output is centered.

17. A method for creating an accurate mirror current in a current mirror circuit, comprising:

a) forming a symmetrical array of transistor devices;

b) creating a first high current circuit from a first set of said transistor devices;

c) creating a second high current circuit from a second set of said transistor devices;

d) distributing said transistor devices of the first and second high current circuits in a checkerboard pattern within said symmetrical array;

e) forming a first high current metallization and a second high current metallization whereby said first high current metallization has an impedance equal to said impedance of said of said second high current metallization;

f) connecting said first high current metallization to drains of said transistor devices of said first high current circuit;

g) connecting said second high current metallization to drains of said transistor devices of said second high current circuit;

h) centering a voltage distribution network over said symmetrical array of transistors;

i) connecting a source voltage to a center point of said voltage distribution network; and

j) connecting said voltage distribution network to sources of said transistor devices in a distributed manner so as to produce a same value of source voltage at each of said transistor devices.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said first high current circuit comprises a plurality of transistor devices connected in parallel such that drains are connected together, sources are connected together and gates are connected together.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein said second high current circuit comprises a plurality of transistor devices connected in parallel such that drains are connected together, sources are connected together and gates are connected together.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein distributing said transistor devices in a checkerboard pattern averages effects of semiconductor process variations in said transistor devices.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein said first high current metallization and said second high current metallization are formed to have a same value of impedance.

22. A method of connecting an accurate current mirror circuit to high current circuits, comprising:

a) forming a current mirror circuit containing a plurality of P-channel transistor devices and a plurality of N-channel transistor devices;

b) forming a first group of said plurality of P-channel transistor devices and connecting gates of said first group to a high current metallization connected to a drain of a first high current circuit;

c) forming a second group of said plurality of P-channel transistor devices and connecting gates of said second group to a reference voltage; and

d) connecting gates of the first high current circuit and gates of a second high current circuit to drains of the second group, thereby controlling the second high current circuit to produce a current centered around said reference voltage.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein forming said first group and said second group of P-channel transistors is in an array of said P-channel transistors distributed so as to form a checkerboard like pattern to provide an averaging of process variations of said P-channel devices.

24. A method of connecting an accurate current mirror circuit to high current circuits, comprising:

a) forming a current mirror circuit containing a plurality of P-channel transistor devices and a plurality of N-channel transistor devices;

b) forming a first group of said plurality of P-channel transistor devices and connecting gates of said first group of said plurality of P-channel devices to a high current metallization connected to a drain of a first high current circuit;

c) forming a second group of said plurality of P-channel transistor devices and connecting gates of said second group to a reference voltage;

d) connecting gates of the first high current circuit and gates of a second high current circuit to drains of the second group of said plurality of P-channel transistor devices; and

e) connecting said gates of the first group of P-channel transistor devices to said high current metallization connected to the drain of the first high current circuit is made at a point on said high current metallization to produce a voltage at said point equal to the reference voltage.

25. A high current circuit producing an output current equal to an input current, comprising:

a) a means for creating a high current input circuit and a high current output circuit;

b) a means for sensing an input current and creating an accurate copy of said input current at an output of said high current output circuit;

c) a means for laving out and interconnecting a first parallel connected plurality of transistor devices forming said high current input circuit and a second parallel connected plurality of transistor devices forming said high current output circuit to produce an output current that is equal to said input current; and

d) a means for controlling said high current input circuit to produce said output current referenced around a reference voltage.

26. The high current circuit of claim 25, wherein said means for creating a high current input circuit and a high current output circuit further comprises:

a) a means for connecting a same value of a source voltage to each transistor of said first and said second parallel connected plurality of transistor devices; and

b) a means for connecting a first high current metallization to drains of each said transistor of the first parallel connected plurality of transistor devices with a same value of impedance as a second high current metallization connected to drains of each transistor of the second parallel connected plurality of transistor devices.

27. The high current circuit of claim 25, wherein said means for sensing a high input current is a current mirror circuit.

28. The high current circuit of claim 27, wherein said means for sensing said high input current further comprises a plurality of P-channel transistor devices in said current mirror circuit that sense a voltage at a point in said first high current metallization, compares said voltage to a reference voltage and controls said high current output circuit to produce said accurate copy of the high input current centered around said reference voltage at said output of the high current output circuit.

29. The high current circuit of claim 28, wherein said accurate copy of said high input current further comprises;

a) a DAC producing said high input current;

b) a digital input signal to said DAC varying from a positive value to a negative value;

c) said accurate copy referenced to a reference voltage and subtracted from two times said high input current to create an input to a current to voltage converter which is further coupled to subsequent stages of gain;

d) a zero value digital input signal coupled to said DAC creating a zero value analog signal at an output of said subsequent stages of gain.