Wilson Current Mirror
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A Wilson
current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
is a three-terminal circuit (Fig. 1) that accepts an input
current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hydr ...
at the input terminal and provides a "
mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...
ed"
current source A current source is an electronic circuit that delivers or absorbs an electric current which is independent of the voltage across it. A current source is the dual of a voltage source. The term ''current sink'' is sometimes used for sources fed ...
or sink output at the output terminal. The mirrored current is a precise copy of the input current. It may be used as a Wilson current source by applying a constant
bias current In electronics, biasing is the setting of DC (direct current) operating conditions (current and voltage) of an electronic component that processes time-varying signals. Many electronic devices, such as diodes, transistors and vacuum tubes, wh ...
to the input branch as in Fig. 2. The circuit is named after George R. Wilson, an
integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...
who worked for
Tektronix Tektronix, Inc., historically widely known as Tek, is an American company best known for manufacturing test and measurement devices such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and video and mobile test protocol equipment. Originally an independent c ...
. Sedra, A.S. & Smith, K.C.: "Microelectronic Circuits, 6th Ed.",
OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
(2010), pp. 539 - 541.
Wilson devised this configuration in 1967 when he and
Barrie Gilbert Barrie Gilbert (5 June 1937 – 30 January 2020) was an English-American electrical engineer. He was well known for his invention of numerous analog circuit concepts, holding over 100 patents worldwide, and for the discovery of the Translinear Pri ...
challenged each other to find an improved current mirror overnight that would use only three
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s. Wilson won the challenge.Gilbert, B., "Bipolar Current Mirrors," in "Analogue IC Design: the Current-Mode Approach," Eds. Toumazou, C., Lidgey, F. J. & Haigh, D. G., Peter Peregrinus Ltd. (1990), , pp. 268-275.


Circuit operation

There are three principal metrics of how well a
current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
will perform as part of a larger circuit. The first measure is the static error, i.e., the difference between the input and output currents expressed as a fraction of the input current. Minimizing this difference is critical in such applications of a current
mirror A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror forms an image of whatever is in front of it, which is then focused through the lens of the eye or a camera ...
as the differential to single-ended output signal conversion in a
differential amplifier A differential amplifier is a type of electronic amplifier that amplifies the difference between two input voltages but suppresses any voltage common to the two inputs. It is an analog circuit with two inputs V_\text^- and V_\text^+ and one outp ...
stage because this difference controls the common mode and
power supply rejection ratio In electronic systems, power supply rejection ratio (PSRR), also supply-voltage rejection ratio (''k''SVR; SVR), is a term widely used to describe the capability of an electronic circuit to suppress any power supply variations to its output signal. ...
s. The second measure is the
output impedance In electrical engineering, the output impedance of an electrical network is the measure of the opposition to current flow ( impedance), both static ( resistance) and dynamic ( reactance), into the load network being connected that is ''internal ...
of the current source or equivalently its
inverse Inverse or invert may refer to: Science and mathematics * Inverse (logic), a type of conditional sentence which is an immediate inference made from another conditional sentence * Additive inverse, the inverse of a number that, when added to the ...
, the output conductance. This impedance affects stage gain when a current source is used as an active load and affects common mode gain when the source provides the tail current of a differential pair. The last metric is the pair of minimum
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
s from the common terminal, usually a
power rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
connection, to the input and output terminals that are required for proper operation of the circuit. These voltages affect the headroom to the
power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, electric current, current, and frequency to power ...
rails that are available for the circuitry in which the current mirror is embedded. An approximate analysis due to Gilbert shows how the Wilson current mirror works and why its static error should be very low.
Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s Q1 and Q2 in Fig. 1 are a matched pair sharing the same emitter and base potentials and therefore have \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ i_ and \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ i_. This is a simple two-transistor current mirror with \scriptstyle i_ as its input and \scriptstyle i_ as its output. When a current \scriptstyle i_\text is applied to the input node (the connection between the base of Q3 and collector of Q1), the
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
from that node to ground begins to increase. As it exceeds the voltage required to bias the emitter-base junction of Q3, Q3 acts as an emitter follower or common collector amplifier and the base voltage of Q1 and Q2 begins to rise. As this base
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
increases, current begins to flow in the collector of Q1. All increases in voltage and current stop when the sum of the collector current of Q1 and base current of Q3 exactly balance \scriptstyle i_\text. Under this condition all three transistors have nearly equal collector currents and therefore approximately equal base currents. Let \scriptstyle i_B ~=~ i_ ~=~ i_ ~\approx~ i_. Then the collector current of Q1 is \scriptstyle i_\text \,-\, i_B; the collector current of Q2 is exactly equal to that of Q1 so the emitter current of Q3 is \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ i_ \,+\, 2i_B ~=~ i_\text \,-\, i_B \,+\, 2i_B ~=~ i_\text \,+\, i_B. The collector current of Q3 is its emitter current minus the base current so \scriptstyle i_\text ~=~ i_\text \,+\, i_B \,-\, i_B ~=~ i_\text. In this approximation, the static error is zero.


Difference of input and output currents

A more exact formal analysis shows the expected static error. We assume: # All
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s have the same current gain β. # Q1 and Q2 are matched, and they share the same base-emitter voltage, so their collector currents are equal. Therefore, \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ i_ ~\equiv~ i_C and \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ i_ ~\equiv~ i_B. The base current of Q3 is given by, \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ \frac and the emitter current by, :i_ = \fraci_ ... (1) From the sum of
currents Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hy ...
at the node shared by the emitter of Q3, the collector of Q2 and the bases of Q1 and Q2, the emitter current of Q3 must be: :i_ = i_ + i_ + i_ = i_C + 2i_B = \fraci_C ... (2) Equating the expressions for \scriptstyle i_ in (1) and (2) gives: :i_C = \left( \frac \right)i_ ... (3) The sum of currents at the input node implies that \scriptstyle i_\text ~=~ i_ \,+\, i_ ~=~ i_C \,+\, \frac. Substituting for \scriptstyle i_C from (3) leads to: \scriptstyle i_\text ~=~ \left( \frac \,+\, \frac \right)i_ or \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ \left( \frac \right)i_\text. Because \scriptstyle i_ is the output current, the static error, the difference between the input and output currents, is: :i_\text - i_\text = \frac \approx \frac ... (4) With
NPN transistor A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A ...
s, the current gain, \scriptstyle \beta , is of the order of 100, and, in principle, the mismatch is about 1:5000. For the Wilson current source of Fig. 2, the input current of the mirror is \scriptstyle I_ ~=~ \frac\left( V_ \,-\, V_ \,-\, V_ \right). The base-emitter voltages, \scriptstyle V_, are typically between 0.5 and 0.75 volts so some authors
approximate An approximation is anything that is intentionally similar but not exactly equal to something else. Etymology and usage The word ''approximation'' is derived from Latin ''approximatus'', from ''proximus'' meaning ''very near'' and the prefix ...
this result as \scriptstyle I_\text \approx \frac. The output current is thus substantially dependent only on VCC and R1 and the circuit acts as a
constant current source A current source is an electronic circuit that delivers or absorbs an electric current which is independent of the voltage across it. A current source is the dual of a voltage source. The term ''current sink'' is sometimes used for sources fed ...
, that is, the current remains constant with variations in the impedance of the load. However, variations in VCC or changes in the value of R1 due to temperature will be reflected in variations in the output current. This method of direct generation of a reference current from the power supply using a
resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...
rarely has adequate stability for practical applications and more complex circuits are used to provide reference currents independent of temperature and supply voltages. Equation (4) substantially underestimates the differences between the input and output currents that are generally found in this circuit for three reasons. First, the emitter-collector voltages of the inner current mirror formed by Q1 and Q2 are not the same. Transistor Q2 is
diode A diode is a two-Terminal (electronics), terminal electronic component that conducts electric current primarily in One-way traffic, one direction (asymmetric electrical conductance, conductance). It has low (ideally zero) Electrical resistance ...
-connected and has \scriptstyle v_ ~=~ v_, which is typically on the order of 0.6 to 0.7 volts. The collector emitter voltage of Q1 is higher by the base-emitter voltage of Q3 and therefore is about twice the value across Q2. The
Early effect The Early effect, named after its discoverer James M. Early, is the variation in the effective width of the base in a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) due to a variation in the applied base-to-collector voltage. A greater reverse bias acro ...
(base-width modulation) in Q1 will force its collector current to be slightly higher than that of Q2. This problem can be essentially eliminated by the addition of a fourth transistor, shown as Q4 in the improved Wilson current mirror of Fig. 4a. Q4 is
diode A diode is a two-Terminal (electronics), terminal electronic component that conducts electric current primarily in One-way traffic, one direction (asymmetric electrical conductance, conductance). It has low (ideally zero) Electrical resistance ...
-connected in series with the collector of Q1, lowering its collector voltage until it is approximately equal to \scriptstyle v_ for Q2. Second, the Wilson current mirror is susceptible to mismatches in the current gain, \scriptstyle \beta, of its transistors, particularly the match between \scriptstyle \beta_3 and the current gains of the matched pair Q1 and Q2. Accounting for \scriptstyle \beta differences among all three transistors, one can show that \scriptstyle i_\text \,-\, i_\text ~=~ \frac where \scriptstyle \overline is the
harmonic mean In mathematics, the harmonic mean is a kind of average, one of the Pythagorean means. It is the most appropriate average for ratios and rate (mathematics), rates such as speeds, and is normally only used for positive arguments. The harmonic mean ...
of the current gains of Q1 and Q2 or \scriptstyle \overline ~=~ 2\left \frac \,+\, \frac \right. Beta mismatches of five percent or more are reported to be common, causing an order of
magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...
increase in the static error. Finally, the collector current in a bipolar transistor for low and moderate emitter currents conforms closely to the relation \scriptstyle i_C ~=~ I_\exp \left( \frac \right) where \scriptstyle V_T ~=~ \frac is the thermal voltage and \scriptstyle I_ is a constant dependent on
temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...
, doping concentrations, and collector-emitter voltage. Matched currents in transistors Q1 and Q2 depend on conformity to the same equation but observed mismatches in \scriptstyle I_ are geometry dependent and range from \scriptstyle \pm 1\text\pm 10 percent. Such differences between Q1 and Q2 lead directly to static errors of the same percentage for the entire mirror. Careful layout and transistor design must be used to minimize this source of error. For example, Q1 and Q2 may each be implemented as a pair of paralleled transistors arranged as a cross-coupled quad in a common-centric layout to reduce effects of local gradients in current gain. If the mirror is to be used at a fixed bias level, matching
resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...
s in the emitters of this pair can transfer some of the matching problem from the
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s to those
resistor A resistor is a passive two-terminal electronic component that implements electrical resistance as a circuit element. In electronic circuits, resistors are used to reduce current flow, adjust signal levels, to divide voltages, bias active e ...
s.


Input and output impedances and frequency response

A circuit is a current source only to the extent that its output current is independent of its output voltage. In the circuits of Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, the output voltage of importance is the potential from the collector of Q3 to ground. The measure of that independence is the output impedance of the circuit, the ratio of a change in output
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
to the change in current it causes. Fig. 3 shows a small signal model of a Wilson current mirror drawn with a test voltage source, \scriptstyle v_\text, attached to the output. The output impedance is the ratio: \scriptstyle z_\text ~\equiv~ \frac. At low
frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio ...
this ratio is real and represents an output resistance. In Fig. 3, transistors Q1 and Q2 are shown as forming a standard two-transistor current mirror. It is sufficient for calculating the output impedance to assume that the output current of this current mirror sub-circuit, \scriptstyle i_, is equal to the input current, \scriptstyle i_, or \scriptstyle i_ ~\approx~ i_. Transistor Q3 is represented by its low-frequency hybrid-pi model with a current controlled dependent current source for the collector current. The sum of currents at the emitter node of Q3 implies that: :i_\text = i_ + i_ = 2i_\texti_ = \fraci_\text ... (5) Because the dynamic resistance of the diode-connected transistor Q2, the input resistance of the two-transistor current mirror, is much smaller than \scriptstyle r_, the test voltage, \scriptstyle v_\text, effectively appears across the collector-emitter terminals of Q3. The base current of Q3 is \scriptstyle i_ ~=~ -i_. Using equation (5) for \scriptstyle i_, the sum of currents at the collector node of Q3 becomes \scriptstyle i_\text ~=~ \frac \,-\, \fraci_\text. Solving for the output impedance gives: :z_\text = \frac = \left( 1 + \frac \right)r_ \approx \fracr_ ... (6) In a standard two-transistor current mirror, the output impedance would be the dynamic early resistance of the output transistor, the equivalent of which in this case is \scriptstyle r_. The Wilson current mirror has an output impedance that is higher by the factor \scriptstyle \frac, on the order of 50 times. The
input impedance In electrical engineering, the input impedance of an electrical network is the measure of the opposition to current ( impedance), both static ( resistance) and dynamic ( reactance), into a load network or circuit that is ''external'' to the elec ...
of a
current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
is the ratio of the change in input voltage (the potential from the input terminal to ground in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) to the change in input current that causes it. Since the change in output current is very nearly equal to any change in input current, the change in the base-emitter voltage of Q3 is \scriptstyle \Delta V_ ~=~ \frac. Eq. (3) shows that the collector of Q2 changes by nearly the same amount, so \scriptstyle \Delta V_ ~\approx~ \frac. The input voltage is the sum of the base-emitter voltages of Q2 and Q3; the collector currents of Q2 and Q3 are nearly equal implying that \scriptstyle g_ ~=~ g_. The input impedance is \scriptstyle z_\text ~=~ \frac. Using the standard formula for \scriptstyle g_m ~=~ \frac leads to: :z_\text = \frac ... (7) where \scriptstyle \frac = V_T is the usual ''
thermal voltage The Boltzmann constant ( or ) is the proportionality factor that relates the average relative thermal energy of particles in a gas with the thermodynamic temperature of the gas. It occurs in the definitions of the kelvin (K) and the molar gas ...
'', the product of the
Boltzmann constant The Boltzmann constant ( or ) is the proportionality factor that relates the average relative thermal energy of particles in a ideal gas, gas with the thermodynamic temperature of the gas. It occurs in the definitions of the kelvin (K) and the ...
and
absolute temperature Thermodynamic temperature, also known as absolute temperature, is a physical quantity which measures temperature starting from absolute zero, the point at which particles have minimal thermal motion. Thermodynamic temperature is typically expres ...
divided by the charge of an electron. This impedance is twice the value of \scriptstyle z_\text for the standard two-transistor current mirror.
Current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
s are frequently used in the signal path of an integrated circuit, for example, for differential to single-ended signal conversion within an operational amplifier. At low bias currents, the impedances in the circuit are high enough that the effect of frequency may be dominated by device and
parasitic capacitance Parasitic capacitance or stray capacitance is the unavoidable and usually unwanted capacitance that exists between the parts of an electronic component or circuit simply because of their proximity to each other. When two electrical conductors a ...
s shunting the input and output nodes to ground, lowering the input and output impedances. The collector-base capacitance, \scriptstyle C_, of Q3 is one component of that capacitive load. The collector of Q3 is the output node of the mirror and its base is the input node. When any current flows in \scriptstyle C_, that current becomes an input to the mirror and the current is doubled at the output. Effectively the contribution from Q3 to the total output capacitance is \scriptstyle 2C_. If the output of the Wilson mirror is connected to a relatively high impedance node, the voltage gain of the mirror may be high. In that case the input impedance of the mirror may be affected by the
Miller effect In electronics, the Miller effect (named after its discoverer John Milton Miller) accounts for the increase in the equivalent input capacitance of an inverting voltage amplifier due to amplification of the effect of capacitance between the amplif ...
because of \scriptstyle C_, although the low input impedance of the mirror mitigates this effect. When the circuit is biased at higher currents that maximize the frequency response of the transistor current gain, it is possible to operate a Wilson current mirror with satisfactory results at frequencies up to approximately one tenth of the transition frequency of the
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s. The transition frequency of a bipolar transistor, \scriptstyle f_T, is the frequency at which the short-circuit common-emitter current gain falls to unity. It is effectively the highest frequency for which a transistor may supply useful gain in an amplifier. The transition frequency is a function of the collector current, increasing with increasing current until a broad maximum at a collector current slightly less than what causes the onset of high injection. In simple models of the
bipolar transistor A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A ...
when the collector is grounded, \scriptstyle \beta \left( f \right) shows a single-pole frequency response so \scriptstyle f_T is also the current gain-bandwidth product. Crudely this implies that at \scriptstyle \frac, \scriptstyle \beta \left( \frac \right) ~\approx~ -j10. By equation (4) one might expect the magnitude of the ratio of output to input current at that frequency to differ from unity by about 2%. The Wilson current mirror achieves the high output impedance of equation (6) by
negative feedback Negative feedback (or balancing feedback) occurs when some function (Mathematics), function of the output of a system, process, or mechanism is feedback, fed back in a manner that tends to reduce the fluctuations in the output, whether caused ...
rather than by emitter degeneration as
cascode The cascode is a two-stage amplifier that consists of a common emitter stage feeding into a common base stage when using bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) or alternatively a common source stage feeding a common gate stage when using field-e ...
d mirrors or sources with resistor degeneration do. The node impedance of the only internal node of the mirror, the node at the emitter of Q3 and the collector of Q2, is quite low. At low frequency, that impedance is given by \scriptstyle \frac ~=~ \frac. For a device biased at 1 mA having a current gain of 100, this evaluates to 0.26 ohms at 25 °C. Any change in output
current Currents, Current or The Current may refer to: Science and technology * Current (fluid), the flow of a liquid or a gas ** Air current, a flow of air ** Ocean current, a current in the ocean *** Rip current, a kind of water current ** Current (hydr ...
with output
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
results in a change in the emitter current of Q3 but very little change in the emitter node voltage. The change in \scriptstyle i_ is fed back through Q2 and Q1 to the input node where it changes the base current of Q3 in a way that reduces the net change in output current, thus closing the feedback loop. Circuits that contain negative feedback loops, whether current or voltage loops, with loop gains near or above unity may exhibit undesirable anomalies in frequency response when the phase shift of the signal inside the loop is sufficient to convert negative into positive feedback. For the current feedback loop of the Wilson current mirror this effect appears as a strong broad resonant peak in the ratio of the output to input current, \scriptstyle H_\left( s \right) ~\equiv~ \frac, at about \scriptstyle \frac. Gilbert shows a simulation of a Wilson current mirror implemented in
NPN transistor A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is a type of transistor that uses both electrons and electron holes as charge carriers. In contrast, a unipolar transistor, such as a field-effect transistor (FET), uses only one kind of charge carrier. A ...
s with \scriptstyle f_T ~=~ 3.0 GHz and current gain \scriptstyle \beta ~=~ 100 that shows a peak of 7.5 dB \scriptstyle \left( \left, H_\left( s \right) \ ~=~ 2.4 \right) at 1.2 GHz. This behavior is very undesirable and can be largely eliminated by further modification of the basic mirror circuit. Fig. 4b show a possible variant on the Wilson mirror that reduces this peak by disconnecting the bases of Q1 and Q2 from the collector of Q2 and adding a second emitter to Q3 to drive the bases of the internal mirror. For the same bias conditions and device type, this circuit exhibits flat frequency response to 50 MHz, has a peak response less than 0.7 dB \scriptstyle \left( \left, H_\left( s \right) \ ~=~ 1.08 \right) at 160 MHz and falls below its low-frequency response at 350 MHz.


Minimum operating voltages

The compliance of a
current source A current source is an electronic circuit that delivers or absorbs an electric current which is independent of the voltage across it. A current source is the dual of a voltage source. The term ''current sink'' is sometimes used for sources fed ...
, that is, the range of output
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
over which the output current remains approximately constant, affects the potentials available to bias and operate the circuitry in which the source is embedded. For example, in Fig. 2 the voltage available to the "Load" is the difference between the supply voltage \scriptstyle V_ and the collector voltage of Q3. The collector of Q3 is the output node of the mirror and the potential of that collector relative to ground is the output voltage of the mirror, that is, \scriptstyle v_\text ~=~ v_ \,+\, v_ and the "load" voltage is \scriptstyle V_ \,-\, v_\text. The "load" voltage range is maximized at the minimum \scriptstyle v_\text. Also, when a current mirror source is used as an active load for one stage of a system, the input to the next stage is often directly connected between the source output node and the same power rail as the mirror. This may require that the minimum \scriptstyle v_\text be kept as small as possible to simplify biasing the succeeding stage and to make it possible to turn that stage fully off under transient or overdrive conditions. The minimum output voltage of the Wilson current mirror must exceed the base emitter voltage of Q2 by enough that Q3 will operate in active mode rather than saturation. Gilbert reports data on a representative implementation of a Wilson current mirror that showed constant output current for an output voltage as low as 880 millivolts. Since the circuit was biased for high frequency operation (\scriptstyle V_ ~\ge~ 0.7), this represents a saturation voltage for Q3 of 0.1 to 0.2
volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...
s. By contrast, the standard two-transistor mirror operates down to the saturation voltage of its output transistor. The input voltage of the Wilson current mirror is \scriptstyle v_\text = v_ + v_. The input
node In general, a node is a localized swelling (a "knot") or a point of intersection (a vertex). Node may refer to: In mathematics * Vertex (graph theory), a vertex in a mathematical graph *Vertex (geometry), a point where two or more curves, lines ...
is a low impedance node so its voltage remains approximately constant during operation at \scriptstyle 2V_ \approx 1.4 volts. The equivalent voltage for the standard two-transistor mirror is only one base-emitter drop, \scriptstyle V_, or half that of the Wilson mirror. The headroom (the potential difference between the opposite power rail and the input of the mirror) available to the circuitry that generates the input current to the mirror is the difference of the power supply voltage and the mirror input voltage. The higher input voltage and higher minimum output voltage of the Wilson current mirror configuration may become problematic for circuits with low supply voltages, particularly supply voltages less than three volts as are sometimes found in battery powered devices.


A four-transistor improved mirror

Adding a fourth transistor to the Wilson current mirror as in Fig. 4a equalizes the collector voltages of Q1 and Q2 by lowering the collector voltage of Q1 by an amount equal to VBE4. This has three effects: first, it removes any mismatch between Q1 and Q2 due to the Early effect in Q1. This is the only first order source of mismatch in the three-transistor Wilson current mirror Second, at high currents the current gain, ''β'', of transistors decreases and the relation of collector current to base-emitter voltage deviates from \scriptstyle i_C ~=~ I_S\exp \left( \frac \right). The severity of these effects depends on the collector voltage. By forcing a match between the collector voltages of Q1 and Q2, the circuit makes the performance degradation at high current on the input and output branches symmetric. This extends the linear operating range of the circuit substantially. In one reported measurement on a circuit implemented with a
transistor array Transistor arrays consist of two or more transistors on a common Wafer (electronics), substrate. Unlike more highly integrated circuits, the transistors can be used individually like discrete transistors. That is, the transistors in the array ar ...
for an application requiring 10 mA output, the addition of the fourth transistor extended the operating current for which the circuit showed less than 1% difference between input and output currents by at least a factor of two over the three transistor version. Finally, equalizing the collector voltages also equalizes the power dissipated in Q1 and Q2 and that tends to reduce mismatch from the effects of temperature on VBE.


Advantages and limitations

There are a number of other possible
current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
configurations in addition to the standard two-transistor mirror that a designer may choose to use. These include ones in which the mismatch from base current are reduced with an emitter follower, circuits that use
cascode The cascode is a two-stage amplifier that consists of a common emitter stage feeding into a common base stage when using bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) or alternatively a common source stage feeding a common gate stage when using field-e ...
d structures or resistor degeneration to lower the static error and raise output impedance, and gain-boosted current mirrors that use an internal error amplifier to improve the effectiveness of cascoding. The Wilson current mirror has the particular advantages over alternatives that: * The static error, the input-output current difference, is reduced to very small levels attributable almost entirely to random device mismatches while the output impedance is raised by a factor of \scriptstyle \frac simultaneously. * The circuit uses minimum resources. It does not require additional bias voltages or large area resistors as do cascoded or resistively degenerated mirrors. * The low impedance of its input and internal nodes makes it possible to bias the circuit for operation at frequencies up to \scriptstyle \frac. * The four-transistor version of the circuit has extended linearity for operation at high currents. The Wilson current mirror has the limitations that: * The minimum
potentials Potential generally refers to a currently unrealized ability, in a wide variety of fields from physics to the social sciences. Mathematics and physics * Scalar potential, a scalar field whose gradient is a given vector field * Vector potential ...
from input or output to the common rail connection that are needed for proper operation are higher than for the standard two-transistor mirror. This reduces the headroom available to generate the input current and limits the compliance of the output. * This mirror uses feedback to raise the output impedance in such a way that the output transistor contributes collector current fluctuation noise to the output. All three
transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
s of the Wilson current mirror add noise to the output. * When the circuit is biased for high frequency operation with maximum \scriptstyle f_T, the negative feedback loop that maximizes the output impedance may cause peaking in the frequency response of the mirror. For stable, low-noise operation it may be necessary to modify the circuit to eliminate this effect. * In some applications of a current mirror, particularly for
biasing In electronics, biasing is the setting of DC (direct current) operating conditions (current and voltage) of an electronic component that processes time-varying signals. Many electronic devices, such as diodes, transistors and vacuum tubes, wh ...
and active load applications, it is advantageous to produce multiple current sources from a single input reference current. This is not possible in the Wilson configuration while maintaining an accurate match of the input current to the output currents.


MOSFET implementation

When the Wilson current mirror is used in
CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss ", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...
circuits, it is usually in the four transistor form as in Fig. 5. If the transistor pairs M1/M2 and M3/M4 are exactly matched and the input and output potentials are approximately equal, then in principle there is no static error, the input and output currents are equal because there is no low frequency or DC current into the gate of a
MOSFET upright=1.3, Two power MOSFETs in amperes">A in the ''on'' state, dissipating up to about 100 watt">W and controlling a load of over 2000 W. A matchstick is pictured for scale. In electronics, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field- ...
. However, there are always mismatches between transistors caused by random lithographic variation in device geometry and by variations in threshold voltage between devices. For long-channel MOSFETs operating in saturation at fixed drain-source voltage, \scriptstyle V_, the drain current is proportional to device sizes and to the magnitude of the difference between the gate-source voltage and the device threshold voltage as :i_D \propto \frac \left( v_ - V_ \right)^2 ... (8) where \scriptstyle W is the device width, \scriptstyle L is its length and \scriptstyle V_ the device threshold voltage. Random lithographic variations are reflected as different values of the \scriptstyle \frac ratio of each transistor. Similarly threshold variations appear as small differences in the value of \scriptstyle V_ for each transistor. Let \scriptstyle \Delta \frac ~\equiv~ \frac \,-\, \frac and \scriptstyle \Delta V_ ~=~ V_ \,-\, V_. The mirror circuit of Fig. 5 forces the drain current of M1 to equal the input current and the output configuration assures that the output current equals the drain current of M2. Expanding equation (8) in a two-variable Taylor series about \scriptstyle i_ and truncating after the first linear term, leads to an expression for the mismatch of the drain currents of M1 and M2 as: :i_\text \,-\, i_\text ~=~ \left( \frac \,-\, \frac \right)i_\text ... (9) The statistics of the variation in threshold voltage of matched pairs across a
wafer A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the foo ...
have been studied extensively. The standard deviation of the threshold voltage variation depends on the absolute size of the devices, the minimum feature size of the manufacturing process, and the body voltage and is typically 1 to 3 millivolts. Therefore, to keep the contribution of the threshold voltage term in equation (9) to a percent or less requires biasing the transistors with the gate-source voltage exceeding the threshold by several tenths of a volt. This has the subsidiary effect of lowering the contribution of the mirror transistors to the output current noise because the drain current noise density in a
MOSFET upright=1.3, Two power MOSFETs in amperes">A in the ''on'' state, dissipating up to about 100 watt">W and controlling a load of over 2000 W. A matchstick is pictured for scale. In electronics, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field- ...
is proportional to the transconductance and therefore inversely proportional to \scriptstyle V_ \,-\, V_. Similarly, careful layout is required to minimize the effect of the second, geometric term in (9) that is proportional to \scriptstyle \Delta \frac. One possibility is to subdivide transistors M1 and M2 into multiple devices in parallel that are arranged in a common-centric or interdigitated layout with or without dummy guard structures on the perimeter. The output impedance of the
MOSFET upright=1.3, Two power MOSFETs in amperes">A in the ''on'' state, dissipating up to about 100 watt">W and controlling a load of over 2000 W. A matchstick is pictured for scale. In electronics, the metal–oxide–semiconductor field- ...
Wilson current mirror can be calculated in the same way as for the bipolar version. If there is no body effect in M4, the low frequency output impedance is given by \scriptstyle z_O ~\approx~ \left( 1 \,+\, g_r_ \right)r_. For M4 not to have a body-source potential, it must be implemented in a separate body well. However, the more common practice is for all four transistors to share a common body connection. The drain of M2 is a relatively low impedance node and this limits the body effect. The output impedance in that case is: :z_O \approx \left( 2 + g_r_ \right)r_ ... (10) As in the case of the bipolar transistor version of this circuit, the output impedance is much larger than it would be for the standard two-transistor current mirror. Since \scriptstyle r_ would be the same as the output impedance of the standard mirror, the ratio of the two is \scriptstyle 2 \,+\, g_r_, which is often quite large. The principal limitation on the use of the Wilson current mirror in MOS circuits is the high minimum voltages between the ground connection in Fig. 5 and the input and output nodes that are required for proper operation of all transistors in saturation. The
voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
difference between the input node and ground is \scriptstyle v_ + v_. The
threshold voltage The threshold voltage, commonly abbreviated as Vth or VGS(th), of a field-effect transistor (FET) is the minimum gate-to-source voltage (VGS) that is needed to create a conducting path between the source and drain terminals. It is an important s ...
of MOS devices is usually between 0.4 and 1.0 volts with no body effect depending on the manufacturing technology. Because \scriptstyle v_ must exceed the threshold voltage by a few tenths of a volt to have satisfactory input-output current match, the total input to ground potential is comparable to 2.0 volts. This difference is increased when the transistors share a common body terminal and the body effect in M4 raises its threshold voltage. On the output side of the mirror, the minimum voltage to ground is \scriptstyle v_ + v_ - V_. This voltage is likely to be significantly greater than 1.0 volts. Both potential differences leave insufficient headroom for the circuitry that provides the input current and uses the output current unless the power supply voltage is higher than 3 volts. Many contemporary
integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...
s are designed to use low voltage power supplies to accommodate the limitations of short-channel transistors, to meet the need for battery operated devices and to have high power efficiency in general. The result is that new designs tend to use some variant of a wide swing cascode
current mirror A current mirror is a circuit designed to copy a electric current, current through one active device by controlling the current in another active device of a circuit, keeping the output current constant regardless of loading. The current being "co ...
configuration. In the case of extremely low power supply voltages of one
volt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, Voltage#Galvani potential vs. electrochemical potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units, International System of Uni ...
or less, the use of current mirrors may be abandoned entirely.


See also

* Widlar current source


References


Further reading

* * * {{Wikibooks-inline, links= How the Wilson current mirror keeps the current? Analog circuits de:Stromspiegel#Beispiele