Level shifter circuit
AssigneeFreescale Semiconductor, Inc.
InventorHiroyuki KIMURA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A level shifter circuit that properly operates even when the power supply voltage is unstable. A level shifter circuit includes a first level shifter unit, a second level shifter unit, and a latch unit. In the first level shifter unit, a transistor is connected to a power supply line to generate drive voltage that is lower than a first power supply voltage. The first level shifter unit outputs complementary signals from the drive voltage. The output of the first level shifter unit is provided to the second level shifter unit. The second level shifter unit converts a complementary signal to a signal having a second power supply voltage. Based on this signal, a signal of the latch unit is switched.
Claims8
A level shifter circuit comprising:
- a first voltage conversion circuit for generating a drive voltage that is lower than a first power supply voltage supplied from the first power supply line and is in correspondence with the first power supply voltage, and generating and outputting complementary signals corresponding to an input signal using the drive voltage;
- a second voltage conversion circuit for generating and outputting a signal corresponding to voltages of the complementary signals output from the first voltage conversion circuit using a second power supply voltage supplied from a second power supply line;
- and
- an output latch circuit for performing holding in accordance with the voltage of the signal output from the second voltage conversion circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.