Back to results
US 6,208,539 B1Granted
Two-phase clock charge pump with power regulation
AssigneeEON Silicon Devices, Inc.
InventorChung K. Chang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing a charge pump that is particularly useful for generating high voltages and high currents for erasing and programming flash electrically-erasable programmable read only memory arrays (Flash EEPROMs). The invention includes an efficient method and circuit for generating a pumped voltage with no voltage drop from one stage to the next by using a simple two-phase clocking scheme and an auxiliary pump to gate a larger primary pump. One feature allows adjustment of the level of voltage pumping to accommodate higher voltage power supplies.
Claims4
A charge pump circuit including:
- (a) an input for receiving an input voltage to be pumped;
- (b) an auxiliary charge pump, coupled to the input, and having a first and a second auxiliary channel, for alternately pumping the input voltage to a voltage Vcharge in excess of the input voltage in each of the first and second auxiliary channels;
- (c) a primary charge pump, coupled to the input and to the first and second auxiliary channels of the auxiliary charge pump, and having a first and a second primary channel, for alternately pumping the input voltage to a voltage in excess of the input voltage in each of the first and second primary channels under the control of the first and second auxiliary channels;
- (d) an output, coupled to each of the first and second primary channels, to allow transmission of a voltage pumped charge through the first and second primary channels.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.