Method and integrated circuit for boosting a voltage

Abstract

A method and an integrated circuit for boosting a voltage are disclosed. A two-stage charge pump is used and has switches and capacitors. Known charges pumps can be single-stage or multi-stage and can achieve only a doubling of the input voltage in practice, depending on the configuration of the switches and capacitors and whereby each stage is provided with a separate drive. An improved two-stage charge pump can triple the input voltage and is advantageously achieved. N-type field effect transistors that are embedded in the substrate of an integrated circuit are utilized as the switches. It is further provided that a second series pass transistor is driven at its bulk terminal and/or its gate by a capacitor and a level shifter. This advantageously obviates the need to expand the width of the additional series pass transistor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.