LAUSR

A controllable constant-power source in 0.35 μm CMOS technology is presented in this paper. It is based on the resistive mirror method, and suitable for thermally-based sensor applications. Two versions have been developed and fabricated: a high-voltage design with a single supply of 10 V, and a low-voltage design with a single supply of 3.6 V. The measured results for the high voltage (low voltage) design are the following: a generated power dynamic range of 57.5 dB (52.4 dB), a load resistance dynamic range of 15.6 dB (12 dB), a voltage efficiency of 0.7 (0.61), and a relative error of the generated power less than 1.8% (1.8%). The temperature compensation of the controllable constant-power source has been performed for the temperature range 0 °C ≤ T ≤ 50 °C. The stability test has been carried out using a resistive load in pulse mode operation confirming that the stability of the proposed controllable constant-power source is not dependent on either the load resistance or the generated power.