Patent ID: 7259612

Claim:
A charge pump apparatus comprising: a voltage booster for a clock signal, the voltage booster having i) a voltage input, a clock input, and a clock output, the voltage input adapted to be coupled to a supply voltage source to receive a supply voltage, the clock input adapted to be coupled to an oscillator stage to receive a clock signal, the clock output adapted to supply a charge pump circuit; (ii) one or more charge storage devices; and (iii) a plurality of switching devices, the plurality of switching devices being configurably arranged such that: during a first clock phase of the clock signal, a first terminal of at least one of the charge storage devices is coupled to the supply voltage and a second terminal thereof is coupled to ground, such that the first terminal is charged to a supply voltage level, the clock output also coupled to ground, and during a second clock phase of the clock signal, the first terminal is coupled to the clock output and the second terminal is coupled to the supply voltage whenever the supply voltage is less than a threshold voltage level, such that the first terminal coupled to the clock output is charged further to greater than the supply voltage, and the second terminal is coupled to ground whenever the supply voltage is at least that of the threshold voltage level, such that the first terminal coupled to the clock output is at the supply voltage.