The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 18, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 09, 2002
William Brandes Shearon, Findlay, OH (US);
Intersil Americas Inc., Milpitis, CA (US);
Abstract
At least upper order stages of a multi-stage charge pump contain respective drive signal recovery circuits, that enable the charge pump to operate over a larger voltage range and/or be driven by a very small input voltage. The switch control signal recovery circuit has an auxiliary NFET switch whose current flow path is series-coupled with a Schottky diode between the output voltage of the next lower order stage and a PFET switch drive line. The auxiliary switch controllably clamps the PFET switch drive line at a voltage that differs from the output voltage of the next lower order charge pump stage by the voltage drop across the Schottky diode. This effectively guarantees that the level-shifted line of that stage's transient clamp network will be biased to its appropriate operating voltage level, so that the clamp rail of this stage cannot hang up at a voltage level that is well below the output voltage from the next lower order stage.