Biasing scheme for low-voltage MOS cascode current mirrors

A circuit and a method for biasing a compound cascode current mirror (CCCM) that enables high-voltage swing at the output and accurate current mirroring is presented. The CCCM has mirror transistors and cascode transistors which may be of a different technology kind. The drain-source voltage Vds of the mirror transistor on the input leg of the CCCM is held at a voltage Vov that is generated by the biasing circuit; Vov is the overdrive voltage of the input mirror transistor of the CCCM and the value of Vov is maintained by the bias circuit and a feed-back amplifier such that the mirror transistor remains on the edge of its active region, over manufacture deviations and tracks even over operational conditions such as temperature and supply variations. The feed-back amplifier drives the gates of the cascode transistors and uses its feedback node to hold the Vds at Vov.