A wide-temperature range (77–400 K) CMOS low-dropout voltage regulator system

In this study, a low-dropout voltage regulator (LDO) system composed of two LDOs, which can operate in the temperature range of 77–400 K, has been developed. Cryogenic and typical transistor models of the 180 nm UMC CMOS process have been employed in the design process. Both LDOs can provide a load current of 100 mA while generating four different output voltage levels (0.9 V, 1.2 V, 1.5 V, 1.8 V). The LDO system provides 70 mV, 60 mV, 60 mV, and 50 mV dropout voltages at 77 K, and 111 mV, 108 mV, 110 mV, and 82 mV dropout voltages at 400 K, for the output voltage levels 0.9 V, 1.2 V, 1.5 V, and 1.8 V, respectively. Post-layout simulation results of the overall LDO system present that the output voltage varies by 30 mV over the broad range of temperatures from 77 K to 400 K.