Advantages of an Asymmetric Design of Kuijk’s Bandgap used in an Automotive Environment

Bandgaps are a well-known analog circuit block, which are used in almost each and every IC design. The reason is its simplicity and the superior temperature stability if used as a voltage reference. In this article we consider the asymmetric design of Kuijks bandgap design and show a circuit implementation with good driving capability. First an overview of existing design versions is given. Then a bandgap circuit is shown which is useful in an automotive environment with a temperature range of T = –40 ... 150 deg C with good EMC robustness. The weaknesses of the circuit are analyzed and an improved version is proposed. Finally measurement results of the new bandgap design are presented.