Low Quiescent Current Tracking LDO for Automotive Applications

This paper proposes a tracking low-dropout voltage regulator for automotive applications. It takes in an external voltage reference and replicates it at the output with high accuracy and low sensitivity to variations of the supply voltage and output current. Output voltage range is between 3.3 and 5v, with a maximum current load capability of 150mA. The design focuses on optimizing key parameters for each building block - e.g. high accuracy for the error amplifier and low output impedance for the gate buffer - in order to obtain a robust structure with low power consumption. The tracker was implemented in an automotive 130nm CMOS process, and its performance was validated by measurements performed on a test chip.