A high precision constant current source applied

in LED driver

Hongtao Mu, Li Geng*, Jun Liu

Department of Microelectronics
Xian Jiaotong University
Xian, China
gengli@mail.xjtu.edu.cn

AbstractLED is generally driven by constant current because
the color and brightness of LED are directly related to their
forward current. The current accuracy is a very important index
for a high performance LED driver. In this paper, a constant
current source applied in LED driver is proposed to improve the
accuracy of the LED current. The constant current source
consists of a reference current generator, a current mirror and a
current regulator. An accurate current mirror with high
impedance is utilized which eliminates the channel length
modulation effect of the MOSFETs. A new current regulator in
which MOSFET operates in linear region instead of saturation
region is proposed to improve the current accuracy and the
by adjusting the gate voltage of the power MOSFETs by a
negative feedback control. Compared with the switch-mode
regulator, the linear regulator is more accurate and stable, but
less efficient [3]. In this paper, a new linear regulated constant
current source is designed to improve the current accuracy.
1.0
0.8
0.6
ILED (A)

drivers efficiency. The proposed circuit is based on chartered

0.35m 3.3/5V process and has been simulated by Cadence
0.4
spectre. The output current is 150mA. Simulation results show
that current accuracy of +/-0.5% for a wide output voltage range
from 0.35V to 13V is obtained. 0.2

Keywords-LED driver; constant current source; current regulator.

0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
I. INTRODUCTION VF (V)

In recent years, light emitting diode (LED) is gradually Figure 1. Voltage-current characteristic of LED
applied to replace the traditional lighting like cold cathode
fluorescent lamp (CCFL) due to their advantages such as high Fig.2 shows the basic block diagram of the LED driver
luminous efficiency, super longevity, safety for environment using constant current source. The constant current source
and wide color gamut [1]. They have been used to broad supplies constant current for each LED string without being
applications like general illumination, portable lighting, affected by the variation of LEDs forward voltage and other
backlighting and automotive lighting. variation such as temperature and power supply.
From the voltage-current characteristic of LED as shown in
Fig.1, we can see that a little variation of voltage across the
LED can cause large current change when LED is fully
conducted. Since the color and brightness of LED are directly
related to their forward current, in order to avoid color shift
and maintain constant brightness, LED should be driven with
constant current.
In general, there are two approaches to maintain a constant
current in a LED string. The first is the switch-mode constant
current source. It adopts peak current control (PCC) or
hysteretic current control (HCC) to regulate the current [2].
Because it works in the switch state, the efficiency is high.
However, its problems are big ripple current, strong radiation Figure 2. Block diagram of the LED driver
interference and low accuracy. The second approach is the
linear regulated constant current source. It regulates the current

978-1-4244-6554-5/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

 The constant current source consists of a reference current
generator, a current mirror and a current regulator, as shown in
Fig.3.
II. PROPOSED CONSTANT CURRENT SOURCE
Fig.6 shows the topology of the proposed constant current
source. A reference current IREF is generated by the reference
current generator and multiplied by ratio M through the current
mirror. The current regulator multiplies MIREF with a ratio of N
to the output and maintains the output current IOUT constant.

Figure.3 Block diagram of the constant current source

As mentioned in [4], traditional current mirror encounters

poor current precision due to channel length modulation effect.
In [5], the current mirror shown in Fig.4 employs an
operational amplifier and a PMOSFET to eliminate channel
length modulation effect. However, the output impedance is
Figure 6. Proposed constant current source
not high enough which makes the current accuracy worse
when the voltage across resistor R changes.
A. High Precision Current Mirror

A high precision current mirror [7] is utilized, as shown in

Fig.7. The current mirror not only has highly accurate current
ratio but also keeps immune to the output voltage variation due
to its high output impedance.

Figure 4. Structure of current mirror in [5]

In [6], two current regulators are discussed, as shown in

Fig.5. The output current is Vref/Rsense for current regulator
in Fig.5 (a). Parasitic resistance of the chip ground will affect
the current accuracy. In Fig.5 (b), a traditional current mirror
replaces the sensing resistor. The output current is decided by
the width ratio of M3 to M2. However, the current accuracy is
influenced by the mismatch between M2 and M3.
Additionally, the efficiency of current regulator is not high, Figure 7. High precision current mirror
because M2 and M3 work in saturation region which results in
larger voltage drop.
MP1, MP3 and MP4 are used as a two-stage cascade
current mirror. MP2, MP5, MP6, MN1 and MN2 are used to
clamp the drain voltages of MP1 and MP3 to be the same level
which eliminates channel length modulation effect. Three
negative feedback gain stages MP7, MP8 and MP9 can
significantly increase the output impedance.

B. Proposed Current Regulator

The proposed current regulator is shown in Fig.8. M2 and

M3 are forced to operate in the linear region by connecting the
gates of them to supply voltage VDD, which has two
(a) (b)
advantages.
Figure 5. Two kinds of current regulators in [6]
 III. SIMULATION RESULTS
Fig.9 shows the simulation result of the relationship
between output current IOUT and output voltage VOUT of the
constant current source. The output current is 150mA. The
current maintains highly constant in a wide output voltage
range. It obtains +/-0.5% current accuracy for a VOUT variation
from 0.35V to 13V. The proposed constant current source can
supply constant current for each LED string precisely without
being affected by the variation of LEDs forward voltage.
0.16
0.15
0.14
Figure 8. Proposed current regulator 0.13
0.12
0.11
Firstly, it improves the efficiency of the constant current 0.10
source. Operating in linear region, M2 and M3 can also 0.09

IOUT (A)
perform as a current mirror. The MOSFETs operating in linear 0.08
0.07
region can be regarded as a resistor, which can be expressed as:
0.06
0.05
2
R= (1) 0.04
COX (W / L) [ 2(VGS VTH ) VDS ] 0.03
0.02
If the drain-source voltage VDS and the threshold voltage 0.01
VTH of M2 and M3 are the same, the current ratio is 0.00
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
VOUT (V)
I M 3 RM 2 (W / L) M 3
= = (2) Figure 9. The relationship between output current and output voltage of
I M 2 RM 3 (W / L) M 2 proposed constant current source

According to (1), the turn-on resistors of M2 and M3 can

Fig.10 shows the relationship between output current IOUT
be reduced by enlarging the channel width of MOSFETs,
and the supply voltage VDD applied on the constant current
which reduces the voltage across M3. Hence, the efficiency of
source. The current source obtains the current accuracy of
current source can be improved. It also alleviates the threshold
0.3% when the supply voltage has a +/-10% variation.
voltage and W/L mismatch of M2 and M3 [8].
0.1505
Secondly, it improves the current accuracy. When a
MOSFET operates in linear region, the current ID is
0.1504
1
I D = COX [ 2(VGS VTH ) VDS ]VDS (3)
2 0.1503
IOUT(A)

Variations of the W/L and the VTH due to process may

result in current inaccuracy. Assuming that the variations of 0.1502
W/L and VTH are (W/L), VTH, the current variation can be
calculated as
0.1501
I I
I = (W / L) + (VGS VTH )
(W / L) (VGS VTH ) 0.1500
4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6
1 W
COX [ 2(VGS VTH ) VDS ]VDS COX VDS VTH (4)
VDD (V)
= Figure 10. The relationship between output current and supply voltage
2 L
So the current accuracy of the MOSFET is
Fig.11 shows the relationship between output current IOUT
I (W / L) 2VTH and the temperature. The output current has a high accuracy of
+ (5) 0.1% when the temperature changes from -50C to 100C.
I W /L 2(VGS VTH ) VDS
In application, we want to regulate the brightness of LED
Because the gate of M2 and M3 are both connected to as we need as well as to save the power. The brightness of
supply voltage, the influence on current precision by the LED can be adjusted according to the duty cycle of PWM
variation of VTH is greatly reduced. As a result, the current control signal. This can be achieved by PWM dimming
accuracy is enhanced.
strategy in which the LED is on or off, controlled by the PWM IV. CONCLUSION
signal.
Fig.12 shows the waves of output current (above) and A constant current source for LED with high current
PWM control signal (below) in dimming mode. When Vpwm is accuracy is presented. By utilizing the high precision current
high, the output current Iout is 150mA; when Vpwm is low, Iout is mirror, the channel length modulation effect is eliminated.
zero. The designed current source operates well when it is in Furthermore, the current accuracy and efficiency of the
the dimming mode. current driver are improved by the proposed current regulator.
0.15016 Current accuracy of +/-0.5% for a wide output voltage range
from 0.35V to 13V is obtained. The output current can also
0.15015 maintain constant for +/-10% variation of power supply and a
wide temperature change from -50C to 100C. It has the
0.15014
good features of high accuracy, low power dissipation and
good robustness to the operation condition. In addition, the
IOUT (A)

0.15013
output current can also be highly accurate in dimming mode
0.15012 when LED is on.

0.15011

0.15010 REFERENCES
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