The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 01, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 07, 2001
Arthur Descombes, Kerzers, CH;
EM Microelectronic-Marin SA, , SE;
Abstract
A method and a device for generating a substantially temperature independent current (I ) are described. To generate this current (I ), a conventional current generator circuit including an operational amplifier ( ) controlling a transistor ( ) having one ( ) of its current electrodes ( ) connected to a resistor ( ) and to an input terminal ( ) of the operational amplifier ( ), is used. According to the invention, a temperature stable input voltage (Vin) is applied at the other input terminal ( ) of the operational amplifier ( ), and the latter is arranged so that it has an offset voltage (Vos(T)) between its input terminals ( ) having a temperature dependence, this offset voltage (Vos(T)) and the input voltage (Vin) being adjusted to compensate for the temperature dependence of the resistor ( ) such that the current generated (I ) is substantially temperature independent. According to the invention, the geometry of the differential pair of the operational amplifier ( ) is acted upon to generate the offset voltage (Vos(T)).