Patent ID: 8232833
Filing Date: 2012-07-31
Classification: G05F,H02M

Abstract:
1. A charge pump, comprising: a plurality of pump stages arranged in a sequence of pump stages, each pump stage including an output node and a first node; wherein at least one of the pump stages, N or a subset of the pump stages, N and one or more stages higher than N, in the sequence of pump stages, where N≧2, further comprises a transistor coupled to a previous pump stage in the sequence of pump stages to obtain a reference voltage corresponding to the previous pump stage to which the transistor is coupled; wherein the pump stage N or the subset of pump stages N and the one or more stages higher than N in the sequence of pump stages each further comprises a precharge circuit coupled to the output node of the corresponding pump stage in the sequence of pump stages; wherein each said transistor discharges its corresponding pump stage in the sequence of pump stages via use of the corresponding reference voltage wherein the precharge circuit in each of the pump stages N or higher in the sequence of pump stages comprises two transistors separate from the transistor in the pump stage, in series and connected to a bias voltage sufficient to prevent high voltage breakdown of either transistor in the precharge circuit.