AIR UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER

ENGINEERING
EXPERIMENT NO 6

Lab Title: Widlar Current Source

Student Name: Maisam Abbas / Luqman Khan Reg. No: 210344 / 211983

Objective: To build and investigate the functionality of Widlar Current source.

LAB ASSESSMENT:

Excellent Good Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory

Attributes
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)
Ability to
Conduct
Experime
nt
Ability to
assimilate the
results
Effective use of
lab
equipment and
follows the lab
safety rules

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

LAB REPORT ASSESSMENT:

Excellent Good Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Attributes (5) (4) (3) (2) (1)

Data presentation

Experimental
results

Conclusion

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

Date: Signature:
EXPERIMENT NO 6
Widlar Current Source

Objectives:
 To build and investigate the functionality of Widlar Current source.
 To obtain the results both in hardware and Proteus simulation.

Equipment:
 Power Supply
 Digital Multimeter
 Transistor(2n2222)
 Resistors(1k,1.2k,1.5k10k)

Discussion:
The two-transistor current source, also called as current mirror, is the basic building block in the
IC current source circuits. Basic current source circuit consists of two identical transistors,
operating at the same temperature, with base and emitter terminals connected together. B-E
voltage is therefore the same for both transistors. One of the transistors (QREF) is connected as a
diode. When a voltage is applied, the B-E junction of QREF is forward biased and a reference
current IREF is established. Because the B-E voltage is the same for both the transistors a load
current Io is established in the load transistor (Q0).

When the desired current (Io) is small, the Widlar current source may be a better alternative. For
instance, if the required output bias current Io = 10𝜇A, then, for V+ = 5V and V- = -5V the
required resistance value for RREF is about 1M𝛺. In IC, resistors on the order of 1M𝛺 require
large areas and are difficult to fabricate accurately. Therefore, we need to replace that resistance
with one into k𝛺 range. The Widlar current source meets that objective. A voltage difference is
produced across resistor RE, so that B-E voltage of Q 2 is less then B-E voltage of Q1. A smaller
B-E voltage produce a smaller collector current, which means the load current Io is less than the
reference current IREF. The Widlar Current Source is shown in Figure:

Figure 1 The Widlar Current Source

For Widlar current source, the following
L upe
M r
3 Ma
9 tch
4 Pai
S r:

The LM194 and LM394 are junction isolated ultra-well matched monolithic NPN transistor pairs
with an order of magnitude improvement in matching over conventional transistor pairs. The pin
diagram of metal can package is shown in figure below.

Procedure:
 Patch the circuit on Bread Board using LM394 IC according to Widlar Current
source circuit diagram.
 Apply VCC = 12 V from trainer and measure the output current and output voltages with
the help of DMM.
 Record the observed and calculated values of the following parameters.
Circuit Diagram:

Where: VCC = 12V, RREF = 1kΩ, RO = 1kΩ, RE = 10kΩ

Lab tasks:
 Simulate the circuit in Proteus and compare the results with measured and calculated results.

R1 = 1K:

R1 = 1.2K:
R1 = 1.5K:
Observed Values:
IREF: 14.18mA

IO: 16 uA

VRO: 15.8mV

VRE: 162mV

Calculated Values:
IREF: (12 – 0.67)/1000 = 0.011A = 11mA

IO: (12-11.5)/(1000 + 10,000) = 17uA

VRO: 17uA * 1000 = 17mV

VRE: 17uA * 10,000 = 0.17V

 Repeat the above task again, now use Rref=1.2k and 1.5k and measure the above-
mentioned values again.
For 1.2k
Observed Values:
IREF: 10.96mA

IO: 15.4uA

VRO: 15.5mV

VRE: 156mV

Calculated Values:
IREF: (12 – 0.664)/1200 = 9.44mA

IO: (12 – 11.51)/(1000 + 10,000) = 16uA

VRO: 16uA * 1000 = 16mV

VRE: 16uA * 10,000 = 160mV

For 1.5k
Observed Values:
IREF: 8.83mA

IO: 15uA

VRO: 16mV

VRE: 148mV
Calculated Values:
IREF: (12 – 0.655) / 1500 = 7.56mA

IO: (12 – 11.5) / (1000 + 10000) = 16.5uA

VRO: 16.5uA * 1000 = 16.5mV

VRE: 16.5uA * 10,000 = 165mV

Conclusion

In this lab we learnt about Widlar current mirror. It is same that of mirror BJT but it has a

resistor on the emitter of the output BJT(Q2). Due to this emitter resistor the base to emitter

voltage of Q2 increases which cause the increase in the collector voltage so the collector

current decreases .As the output current is equal to the collector current so the output

current also decreases. Output current also depends upon the reference current as it.