International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 2, No. 5, Pp. 189-192, May, 2012.

Manuscript
Received:
17, Jun., 2011
Revised:
1, Sep., 2011
Accepted:
22, Mar., 2012
Published:
15, Jun., 2012

Keywords
LED driver,
temperature
compensation,
constant
current,
linear
AbstractA LED driver IC with
constant current and temperature
compensation is presented. The IC is
trimmed to provide constant current of
20mA5% at an input voltage of 6.0- 90V.
The IC can be used as a two terminal
constant current source or constant current
sink. And the current is well compensated,
at the temperature range of -20~100
the temperature coefficient is 18ppm/
when input voltage is 40V.All the
temperature coefficients at all input voltage
range are below 90 ppm/ . The IC is
designed with SOI technology.


1. Introduction
LED has been developing rapidly in various industries
in recent years, due to many advantages such as
environmental protection, long life, high efficiency
photovoltaic [1]-[7]. LED driver power has become the
focus of attention. In theory, LEDs service life is 10
thousand hours, but in the actual application, because of the
improper design and driving method of driver power, LED
is easily damaged. In some switch-mode LED drivers,
switch-mode will definitely lead to EMI, so this paper
presents a linear constant-current driver. The IC is trimmed
to provide constant current of 20mA5% at an input
voltage range of 6.0- 90V., And the current is well
compensated ,at the temperature range of -20~100the
temperature coefficient is 12ppm/ when input voltage is
24V.All the temperature coefficients at all input voltage
range are below 100ppm/.
2. Circuit implementations
This IC is constant-current driver, and it is a linear
structure without EMI. The chip only needs two pins. The
typical application is shown in Fig. 1, VA and VB are the
two pins of the IC.
When the voltage between VA and VB is in the range
of 6-90V, it can provide a constant, temperature
independent current to make sure the normal operation of
LED. At the same time because of the linear structure, the
chip doesnt generate EMI.


This work was supported by the Institute of VLSI Design of Zhejiang
University.
Qiu Jianping PHD; He Lenian professor of Zhejiang University


Fig.1. Typical application circuit.
The internal structure is shown in Fig. 2. The internal
pre_ regulator maintains a constant 5V at pre_vdd. And
then this voltage is used to power the internal current
reference. Low voltage MOSFET is more stable compared
with high voltage MOSFET and can effectively save chip
area. Internal current reference produces constant current
which is well temperature compensated. Finally we get the
required current source which is independent of
temperature and input voltage by using a current mirror.
The internal structure of the chip will be described in
details in this section.
Pre_regulator
Pre_vdd
HVNMOS
VB
Iout20mA
On-chip
VA
V1
Bias
LVNMOS
Iref

Fig.2 Block diagram of the chip.
A. Internal regulator
The internal structure of Pre_regulator is shown in
Fig.3, where D
1
is a 5V zener diode, HM
1
and HM
2
is high
voltage NMOS. When Input high voltage between the
VA-VB, V2 will be clamped at 5v, then
1 2
1 2 Pr _ 5
GS GS
V V V e vdd v V = + = + (Equ. 1)
From (1), we can ensure that pre_vdd5v is
approximately equal to 5V by adjust the gate-source
A LED driver IC with constant current and
temperature compensation
Qiu Jianping & He Lenian
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 2, No. 5, Pp. 189-192, May, 2012.
International Journal Publishers Group (IJPG)

190
voltage of M1 and M2. However pre_vdd is not an accurate
equal to 5V, and maybe will change from 4V-5V with the
change of input voltage. But this voltage can well power
the internal current reference.

R
1 R
2
HM
1 HM
2
D
1
C
1
V
A
V
B
Pre_vdd5v
V1
V2

Fig. 3 pre_regulator circuit.

B. Current reference
Current reference is the core of this design. In order to
get the current that is independent with temperature, here
we present a novel method of temperature compensation.
First, we focus on the current of MOSFET,
2
1
( )
2
d n ox GS TH
W
I c V V
L
= (Equ.2)
Where
n

is the carrier mobility,

ox
c
is the gate-oxide
capacitance,
TH
V
is the threshold voltage. The
temperature of
TH
V
and
n

is given as:
0 0
( ) ( )
TH TH
V V T T T o =
(Equ.3)
3
0 2
0
( ) ( )( )
n n
T
T T
T
=
(Equ.4)
0
( )
TH
V T
is the threshold voltage at temperatureT
0
,
0
( )
n
T

is the carrier mobility at temperatureT
0
.
Assumed the bias is fixed. So the temperature
coefficient of the current can be expressed as follow:
1 1
[ ]
d d n d TH
d d n TH
I I I V
I T I T V T

c c c c c
= +
c c c c c
(Equ.5)
3
2
n n
T T
c
=
c

TH
V
T
o
c
=
c
(Equ.6)
So from (5) and (6)
1 3 1 2
*
2
d
d GS TH
I
I T T V V
o c
= +
c

(Equ.7)

Therefore the condition of a zero temperature coefficient
of current I
d
can be given by

0 0 0
( )
3 3
GS TH GS
T T
V V T T V
o o
o = + + = +
(Equ.8)
So when T=300K, make sure
0
*300
3
GS GS
K
V V
o
= + (Equ.9)
Then we can get a zero temperature coefficient at room
temperature.
M2
M1
M3
n 1
R
1
R
2
Q1 Q2 Q3
R1
R2
Vref
Id
VGS
+
-
EA
EA

Fig. 4 current reference circuit.
Based on the above analysis, we only need to provide a
suitable bias voltage to MOSFET, and then we can get a
zero temperature coefficient current. Thus we have show
the current reference circuit in Fig. 4, where
2
0 0
1
( ) ( ) ln
ref BE
R k
V V T T T n T
R q
| = +

(Equ.10)
2
*
1 2
GS
R
Vref V
R R
=
+

(Equ.11)
Here we can adjust the
2
1
ln
R
n
R
to maintain a zero
temperature voltage reference V
ref
. And adjust R1 and
R2 to maintain the temperature independent current
reference. Finally, the reference current is as Equ.12.
2
1 2
( * )
2 1 2
d n ox TH
W R
Iref I c Vref V
L R R
= =
+
(Equ.12)
Figure 5 is the output current of presented current
reference circuit.
Jianping et al.: A LED driver IC with constant current and temperature compensation.
International Journal Publishers Group (IJPG)

191

Fig. 5 output current of presented current reference.

3. System simulation
We have introduced implementation of each module of
the chip. Figure 6 is the circuit implementation of the chip.
The chip is design with a SOI process of XFAB, and the
layout has been shown in Fig. 7.
When the input voltage changes at a range of 0-90V, the
output current waveform is shown as Fig. 8. From the
figure we can see that, the current variation is within 5%
when the input voltage changes from 6V-90V. Figure 9
indicates that at a temperature range of -20 ~ 100 ,
the temperature coefficient of the output current, is less
than 90ppm / in the whole voltage range, and the
lowest temperature coefficient can reach 18ppm / .

Fig. 7 The layout of the chip.

Fig. 8 the output current change with input voltage.
V
A
V
B
Pre_regulator Current reference Output
EA
EA
Pre_vdd_5v
Iref

Fig. 6 the circuit implementation of the chip.
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science, Vol. 2, No. 5, Pp. 189-192, May, 2012.
International Journal Publishers Group (IJPG)

192

Fig. 9 Temperature coefficient at different input.
4. Conclusion
A led driver IC with constant current and temperature
compensation is presented in this paper. This IC can be
used as a two terminal constant current source or constant
current sink.
Finally the IC is designed with a SOI process of XFAB.
And the simulated results revealed that the current is
independent of temperature and input voltage.
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