Voltage regulator for semiconductor non-volatile electrically programmable memory device

In an integrated non-volatile memory circuit device, a voltage regulator for providing a regulated voltage from a boosted voltage relative to a supply voltage, comprising:

• a pull-up transistor coupled to the boosted voltage;
• a pull-down transistor connected in series with the pull-up transistor, a common node therebetween defining an output terminal of the voltage regulator that provides the regulated voltage;
• a voltage divider coupled between the output terminal of the voltage regulator and a reference ground and having first and second outputs;
• a first differential amplifier having an input connected to the first output of the voltage divider and an output connected to the pull-up transistor, the first differential amplifier being operable to turn off the pull-up transistor when the regulated voltage rises above a first voltage;
• and
• a second differential amplifier having an input connected to the second output of the voltage divider and an output connected to the pull-down transistor, the second differential amplifier being operable to turn on the pull-down transistor when the regulated voltage rises above a second voltage.

A method for providing a regulated voltage from a voltage regulator to an electronically programmable, non-volatile memory, comprising:

• generating a supply voltage;
• generating the regulated voltage at an output terminal of the voltage regulator;
• generating a boosted voltage exceeding the supply voltage;
• generating first and second reference voltages from the regulated voltage, the first and second reference voltages being less than the regulated voltage;
• generating third and fourth reference voltages;
• coupling the output terminal to the boosted voltage based on a comparison between the first reference voltage and the third reference voltage;
• and
• coupling the output terminal to a reference ground based on a comparison between the second reference voltage and the fourth reference voltage.