Low Voltage, Wide Dynamic Range Gm-Boosting Current Mirror for High Performance Application

This paper presents a low-voltage level shifter current mirror circuit utilizing a Gm-boosting technique to achieve a high output resistance and wide input/output dynamic range. The level shifter transistor at the input stage effectively provides the necessary voltage shifts to maintain consistent current transfer when the input and output stages operate at different voltage levels. An operational transconductance amplifier is used as a gain-boosting structure to achieve higher output resistance and enhance output swing. The proposed gain-boosting current mirror has been validated through simulations using Cadence Virtuoso with 180nm UMC technology. The simulation results show an improved output voltage swing of −250mV using a 1V dual supply, with input and output resistances measured at 430Ω and 1.92 GΩ, respectively. The current transfer error is 0.33% for an input current range of 3000μA. Additionally, the proposed circuit exhibits a deficient power consumption of 65.4 μW with a maximum swing limit of 250mV, indicating its suitability for high performance applications and ultra-low voltage circuit design. Furthermore, a second-order current mode low pass filter is realized using a proposed current mirror to validate its high-performance application.