The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments
Design of a High Precision Current Source
Yu Peng Yanchao Xia Shaojun Wang
Harbin Institute of Technology
NO.92 West Da-zhi Street Harbin , 150001, China
Email: pengyu@hit.edu.cn
Abstract Current source is one of the key components in
electrical measurement and control systems. However, the
noise introduced by temperature drift and other interference
makes it a significant source of systematic errors. To develop a
high precision and stable current source, a Howland-based
voltage to current conversion (V/I) circuit is presented in this
paper. The current source is fully programmable using a DSP
via RS-232 interface. Moreover, a sampling circuit is provided,
using the sampling results, calibration is made to further
reduce the output error of the current source. Under a constant
140 load, experiment results shows that current output
ranges from -50mA to +50mA with error less than 3A, and
features low temperature drift and distortion. This proves that
such design can be an effective way to provide a precise and
stable range output current.
Keywords current source; Howland; calibration.
I. INTRODUCTION
With technology scaling, precision current source
plays an increasing important role in automatic test,
measurement and various applications [1,2]. However,
meeting precision goals, keeping a stable output over
temperature are becoming more and more difficult.
Among all the applications, most of the current
sources used in measurement field are voltage controlled
current sources (VCCS), which attributes high precision
and stable output. Based on ultra precision operational
amplifier, VCCS attributes high precision and stable
output, however, the output range of current source is
often limited, and the error introduced by temperature
and nonlinearity is also a challenge.
Fig.1 shows a circuit, which is also known as the
Howland model, uses resistor matching to accomplish
the feedback loops giving a steady output across a load
[3]. It uses an ultra precision operational amplifier
OP177 to generate a precise and stable current output.
Despite that OP177 features the highest precision
performance of any other op amp, its output range is
limited to -22mA~32mA [4].
Fig 1 Howland current source
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978-1-4244-3864-8/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE
ICEMI2009
To better solve this dilemma, a high precision, wide
range and stable current source is proposed. Voltage is
generated by a D/A converter, and then is converted to
current. In the end, the current is measured, so as to
calibrate the output.
V/I circuit is of critical importance to the design,
however, the circuit in Fig.1, using OP177 to provide a
ultra precise and stable current output, cant satisfy the
wide output range of our requirement. In this case, an
Improved Howland model is proposed, which can
enhance the output range of the traditional Howland
model.
To further eliminate errors, the close loop control
structure is adapted. Compares to open loop control, this
method uses a sampling circuit to complete a feedback
loop giving a steady output. Using this control structure
not only guarantees the stability and precision, but also
cancels the temperature drift and aging of the current
source.
These methods on the improvement of the current
source, however, need to be verified in the actual
application. The practical current source, which is
designed based on our methodology, is discussed in
Section . Although these descriptions give a guideline,
its necessary to introduce the software design in Section
. Finally, Section and demonstrates the current
source, based on the methodology this paper presents,
exhibit a good quality in different kind of tests.
II. HARDWARE DESIGN
The current source discussed in this paper is one of
the components of an automatic test system, which can
provide a programmable current output. Therefore, D/A
converter and V/I conversion circuit based on Howland
model is only part of the design.
Fig.2 shows the control structure of our design. As the
figure shows, Stage 1 is an open loop current generator,
the D/A converters output voltage which leads to V/I
conversion circuit, is directly controlled by computer
through a controller. Stage 2 on the contrary, provides a
sampling circuit, which can be used to correct the error
generated brought in afterwards.
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Settings V/I Current A. Current Generator

Micro D/A
Transition
controller Converter
Circuit Current generator plays a critical important role in
Stage 1
current source. It transforms the digital value to analog
A/D Amplifier Sampling
current output, using a D/A converter and V/I conversion
Stage 2 circuit.
Converter &Filter Resistor
In this circuit, a 16 bit D/A converter, DA7734 is
selected. It features high precision and low distortion, as
Fig 2 Control structure for the current source design well as a low temperature drift. Relationship between
digital input N and voltage output Vout can be
The design can be divided into three parts: control described like this:
circuit, current generator and sampling circuit. (V H  VREF L) u N 2-1
VOUT VREF L  REF
Fig.3 shows the block diagram of the current 65536
sources control unit. The control circuit receives VREFH and VREFL is the high/low reference voltage
message from a computer, then set the channel and value of DA7734. In our design, these value are configured as
of the output. Besides, after receiving sampling value, +5V and -5V, respectively. Thus the output range of
the control circuit performs a feedback control on the DA7734 is -5V to +5V, and the resolution is
output current. To fill these functions, the control circuit 0.103mV/LSB.
should not only have a capability for calculation, but also The V/I conversion circuit is based on the Howland
have a strong logic control ability to ensure that A/D and model, which has been introduced in chapter .The
D/A converter works normally. improved Howland model, without affecting the
Control Unit accuracy of the output current, increase the output range
of the current source, and strengthen the ability to drive
A/D converter
load. Figure 4 shows the Schematic diagram of this V/I
Setting D/A converter conversion circuit.
DSP FPGA
Instrum Amp
Switch
R3
Fig.3 Diagram for control unit of current source
A3 U3
However, it is difficult for an ordinary DSP to carry R1 RS1
Vin RS0 IO2 A2
out the complex logic control, meanwhile, computing U0
R2 A1
power of the field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is IO1 Io
not well suited for calculation, use them alone will be R4 Load
difficult to meet the system requirements. In the end,
Texas Instrument (TI)s DSP TMS320LF2407 is chosen
as the core of the control circuit, and the logic control Fig.4 Improved V-I circuit based on Howland current source
circuits are based on Alteras FPGA EP1C6Q240.
Command and data communication between them are As is shown in this diagram, Ui is the control
realized through 16-bit address and data bus. voltage, while IO is the output current with load RL. A2
The current generator uses an improved Howland and A3 are both voltage followers. However, A3 is given
model to convert the input voltage, which is provided by in serial with another sampling resistor RS1, which is the
a 16 bit D/A converter, to an output current. As has been same to RS0, this ensures that the output current IO1 and
discussed, the D/A converter is controlled by an FPGA, IO2 are equal and is half the value of the whole output
and its output value can be set by computer through DSP. current IO. This structure is based on this consideration:
Since error caused by temperature drift, nonlinearity amplifiers such as OP177 are unable to output current
and other noise are hard to avoid, the sampling circuit is higher enough. For example, OP177 provides a
provided so as to complete a feedback loop rectifying maximum output voltage of only 32mA, this of course is
any error exists in the output current, keeping a favorable unable to meet the output range demand of our design.
output. The sampling circuit is consisting of sampling Assuming both amplifiers are ideal, the voltage
resistance, instrumentation amplifier and A/D converter, between each node has a relationship given by:
these components are also controlled by FPGA, and the U3 UO (1)
result is sent to DSP for further applications.
R2 (2)
The above introduction has explained the working U1 U 2
principles of our design; then well present the design in R4  R2
detail. U1  U 3 U I  U1 (3)
R3 R1
Assuming R1=R2= R3=R4, from (1) (2) (3), the following
expressing for the load current can be easily derived:

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U2 U0 2U I
I0 I 01  I 02 u2
Rs Rs
4 shown in Figure 5.
From this formula, we can see that the current
output is independent of the load RL. However, the
output voltage range of OP177 is only f13.5V(when the
supply voltage is f15V), as a result, when the load is
higher than 140, output current cannot achieve the
designed f50mA range. To solve this problem, we can
modify the proportion coefficient between R1 and R3,
because:
U2  U0 3R1 U I 5
I0 u3 u capacitor should be exactly the same. Any dismatch in
Rs R3 Rs
In this way, we can enhance the driving ability of the
current source without affecting the currents output
range.
B. Sampling Circuit Design
Facing all kinds of noise, digital calibration can be
used to help the whole system obtain a better
performance that analog circuits cannot provide
intrinsically.
In order to calibrate the current source digitally,
sampling circuit is designed to obtain the value of output
current. It transfers the value of current to digital
information that can be easily modified. In our design,
although the improved Howland model features an
output of high accuracy, this structure without feedback
circuit, is hard to guarantee a stable current output [5].
Therefore, we present a high-precision sampling
circuit, in accordance with the DSP, to digitally
compensate the output current. The principle of
designing sampling circuit is to ensure the high
resolution, as well as low measurement error, without
affecting the original current output circuit.
Sampling circuit includes signal amplification and
analog to digital convert circuits. Signal amplification
circuit, which is based on low-pass filter and
instrumentation amplifier, extracting small difference
voltages between sample resistance, while rejecting
common-mode voltage. Since this measurement is based
on Ohms law, high precision and low temperature
coefficient sample resistance becomes a must [6]. In this
design, we select resistance with a static error of 0.1
and a temperature drift coefficient of 5ppm/. The
analog to digital conversion circuit is based on a 24 bit
A/D converter AD7734.
The signal to be measured is voltage between
sampling resister, so there is a need to reject any signals
that are common to the two ends. In this occasion,
instrumentation amplifier, which is a closed loop gain
block that extracting differential signal while canceling
common signals. In order to ensure the accuracy of the
sampling circuit, PGA204 is selected for differential
signal amplification. PGA 204 is a gain-programmable
instrumentation amplifier, its high CMR and low
imbalance error makes it ideal for our design.
ICEMI2009
To suppress the common 50Hz frequency
interference, here we present a low pass filter circuit as is
Fig.5 low pass filter for Instrumentation Amplifier
In this block, Ra and Ca, Rb and Cb form a differential
input low pass filter. The value of the resistor and
the value may cause a common-mode error. To avoid this
effect, capacitor C2 is added to the circuit, whose value is
10 times to Ca.
A/D converter is the core of the sampling circuit, and
its parameters are directly related to the performance of
the sampling circuit. Based on the consideration of
precision and stability, the design uses the - type A/D
converter AD7734. Its resolution is 24-bit, non-linear
output is lower than 15ppm, and the temperature drift
coefficient is lower than 5ppm/. All these features can
fully satisfy the requirements of the sampling circuits.
AD7734 chip includes mode register,
communication register, data register and so on. Through
these registers, we can set the input range, sampling rate,
output mode of the chip. All the operations to the devices
is carried out through the communication register of the
AD7734.
To operate the A/D converter, we developed the
control logic circuit base on FPGA. The conversion
process is described in Figure 6.
Wait for Start
Receive
Settings
Write
Wait Com
register
Write
Data
mode
output
register
Receive
data
Serial-parallel Start conversion
Fig.6 Flow chart of the conversion state of AD7734
1)Start A/D conversion, during the Receive
Settings period, the control logic receives configuration
data, which is used to set the conversion mode of the A/D
converter;
2)After receiving the configuration data, control
logic enters into the "written communication register"
state. During this period, the control logic write the
AD7734s communication register through the serial
interface (SCLK), consequently, indicates which register
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is going to be operated, and whether the next operation is
read or write;
3)Based on the data written in communication
register, the procedure enters into the "write mode
register" state. Control logic write the configuration data,
which is received in procedure 1, to AD7734s mode
selection register, to make sure A/D conversion process
is under specified mode;
4)After setting conversion mode, start A/D
conversion. When conversion ends, the control logic
come into the "receiving sampling data" and "output
sampling data" state. Then, the conversion data is sent
back to FPGA through the serial communication
interface of AD7734. Later, FPGA transfers the sampling
data to DSP for further calculation;
5)After the output of sample data, control logic
returns to the "wait" state, waiting for the command of
the next conversion.
III. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
The control software for the design is based on digital
signal processor TMS320LF2407, using C for
programming. The software set the value of the output
current, and use feedback algorithm for compensation.
Therefore, software of the design includes current output
program and feedback control program, the main
procedure of the software is explained in figure 6:
A. Current Output Program
The current output block mainly performs two
functions. One is to receive messages from the computer,
then translate the message to the control settings, and
pass this message through FPGA to the D/A converter;
another function is accept the sampling data from
sampling circuit, then calibrate the output current.
At the beginning, DSP obtains command and data
from computer through the serial communication
interface (SCI), then after decoding, transfer the message
to FPGA through the 16 bit data and address bus. This
procedure is controlled via read/write and enable
signal from the DSP.
Fig.8 Flow chart of the control software for current source
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Subsequently, based on the information given by
DSP, FPGA is used to configure the control and data
register of D/A converter, consequently, control of the
output is realized.
B. Feedback Control Program
In order to further eliminate the error caused by
environment factors, feedback control structure is
established.
According to sampling results, we devise the
feedback control software, which is run on DSP, to
compensate the output current. Based on this idea, we
can design the closed-loop control program using the
follow methodology.
1)Set the gain of instrumentation amplifier, at the
same time, select the mode of A/D converter;
2)Compare the result of sampling circuit with the
set value, their difference is the output error;
3)According to the output error, calculate the
amount of compensation, modify D/A converters input
value so as to change the output voltage, thus rectify the
output current;
4)Repeat procedure (2), when the output error of the
current is small enough, stop this program, otherwise
repeat procedure (3) until the output current can meet the
precision requirements.
IV. TEST AND CONCLUSION
In order to further verify the design, we carried out
various testing experiments for the current source. These
experiments verified the output range, accuracy and time
stability of the current source. Our tests involve three
main steps:
Step 1: At room temperature, put a high precision 50
resistor in series with the HP34401A multimeter into the
current source circuit output loop. Set current output as
100uA, 1mA, 10mA, 50mA and the corresponding
negative value, read the output currents value shown in
multimeter. Each test are repeated for ten times to get a
intermediate value.
Step 2: Maintain the output current unchanged, using
the same way to test its error after 24 hours.
Step 3: Execute feedback control program, then repeat
Step 1, compare the results to when theres no feedback
control, verify the effectiveness of the feedback control
structure. The overall accuracy, stability and temperature
coefficient are obtained within feedback control.
The Ninth International Conference on Electronic Measurement & Instruments ICEMI2009
Table 1 Measured Result

Temperature
Test results Test results Overall accuracy 1-day stability
Setting coefficient
(without feedback) (with feedback) f(% of full scale) f(% of full scale)
f(ppm of setting)
100PA 102.8PA 101.2PA 0.012 0.015 40
1mA 1.004mA 1.001mA 0.010 0.020 35
10mA 10.005mA 10.001mA 0.010 0.030 30
50mA 50.009 mA 50.004 mA 0.040 0.050 25
-100PA -96.7PA -98.7PA 0.013 0.017 40
-1mA -996.5PA -998.5PA 0.015 0.020 35
-10mA -9.994mA -9.997mA 0.030 0.020 30
-50mA -49.992mA -49.995mA 0.050 0.060 30
Finally, the result shows that the output range of the
current source is -50mA to 50mA. After the feedback
control module is put into use, the error of the output
current reduced from 10A to 5A. In general, this
design of current source effectively improves the output
range and precision of the output current.

I. CONCLUSION

In this paper, design methods and practical results of a

current source are presented. Improved Howland model
circuit shows precise, stable current output, as well as
more than 2X improvement in the output range of current
source. The output current features better performance
because of the digital calibration. Using the sampling
value provided by sampling circuit, the DSP compares
the real value of current with the expected one, and
execute compensation on the current output, thus adjust
the output.
Over all, this design provides a method for current
source design that evidently meets performance goal.
Nevertheless, errors introduced by temperature drift
cant be totally cancelled, these issues should be taken
into account in later designs.

REFERENCES

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Howland Current Source for Sensors Recitation. Fourth IEEE
Caracas Conference on Devices, Circuits and Systems.Volume C.
pp. 208, April 17-19 2008.
[3] Charles Kitchin, Lew Counts: A designers guide to
Instrumentation Amplifier. Analog Devices. 2006
[4] Analog Devices: Users Manual:Ultraprecision Operational
Amplier OP177.1995.
[5] Luo Xiaoqiao Zhou Lili. Design of Intelligence Current Source
with High Precision and Wide Range, Journal of EEE. Vol 26,
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[6] Xu Keqiang. Design of digital control direct circuit current source
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