Patent ID: 6963191

Claim:
A self-starting reference circuit for providing a reference electrical characteristic comprising: a current mirror including a first p-channel field effect transistor (FET) and a second p-channel FET configured to supply a reference current across the first FET and a mirrored output current across the second FET, each p-channel FET having a gate, a source and a drain wherein the gates of these FETs are connected, the sources are connected to a power supply, and the drain of the second FET is connected to the gates of these FETs; and a current source including a first n-channel FET which is a low-threshold n-channel FET having a source, a gate and a drain, the gate of the low-threshold FET having a gate threshold voltage and being connected to the drain of the first p-channel FET and the drain of the low-threshold n-channel FET being connected to the drain of the second p-channel FET, the current source further including a reference regulator circuit for receiving the reference current from the drain of the first p-channel transistor and a reference output circuit for receiving the mirrored output current flowing from the source of the first low-threshold n-channel FET and outputting a reference electrical characteristic.