Optimal curvature-compensated BiCMOS bandgap reference

A bandgap voltage reference with a circuit providing compensation of the thermal nonlinearity for the base emitter voltage is described. The temperature dependence of V/sub BE/(T) is linearized using, as the bias current, a current which is proportional with the n-th degree of absolute temperature. Theoretical calculations show that the thermal instability of the output reference voltage can be strongly reduced if the parameter n is choosen equal with a value fixed only by the technological process. The curvature-corrected bandgap voltage reference is implemented in BiCMOS technology and presents a very small temperature coefficient. SPICE simulation using MOSIS 0.8/spl mu/ is used to verify the analysis.