Patent ID: 8018270

Claim:
A charge pump circuit comprising: a first plurality of capacitors that are connected in parallel to each other, the first plurality of capacitors receiving clock signals to perform sequentially pumping operations which generate a first higher voltage from a power voltage supplied; a first precharge circuit that precharges a first predetermined number of capacitors in the first plurality of capacitors at the power voltage; a second plurality of capacitors that are connected in parallel to each other, the second plurality of capacitors receiving clock signals to perform sequentially pumping operations which generate a second higher voltage from the power voltage; a second precharge circuit that precharges a second predetermined number of capacitors in the second plurality of capacitors at the power voltage; and a series connection path that connects in series between a first output node of the first precharge circuit and a second output node of the second precharge circuit, wherein the first predetermined number is greater than one, and wherein the second predetermined number is greater than one.