Low standby current intermediate dc voltage generator

Abstract

An intermediate Dc voltage generator providing low standby current. The present invention is a CMOS-based integrated circuit that generates a reference voltage level. The present invention accomplishes this task while also minimizing power consumption allowing application for portable computers or other battery-operated devices. The present invention replaces the second stage transistors of the prior art with transistors that have channel lengths greater than the channel lengths of the first stage transistors. This increases the turn on voltage of the second stage transistors. In addition, the channel width of the second stage transistors is less than the channel width of the first stage transistors further increasing turn on voltage. In this way, the second stage transistors are off, reducing the switching current and standby current contributed by the driver transistors at second stage, and providing intermediate level voltage references. The configuration of this invention also reduces the current drawn by the second stage of transistors by providing enough margin of threshold voltage differences at first stage and second stage transistors to keep them normally off during operation of the circuit.