Patent ID: 6927441

Claim:
A charge pump capable of having multiple stages, comprising: at least two pumping stages, each stage including: an input terminal for accepting an input voltage, an output terminal for delivering an output voltage, the output voltage different than the input voltage, a first pumping capacitor having a first terminal coupled between the input and output terminals and having a second terminal structured to accept a first phase signal, and a second pumping capacitor having a first terminal coupled between the input and output terminals and having a second terminal structured to accept a second phase signal, and a first switch coupled between the input terminal and the output terminal and structured to disrupt a connection between the input and output terminals when activated by a switching signal; a second switch coupled between the input terminal and the output terminal and structured to disrupt a connection between the input and output terminals when activated by a switching signal; a third switch coupled between the first terminals of the respective first and second pumping capacitors and structured to disrupt a connection between the first terminals of the capacitors when activated by a switching signal; and a pair of additional switches configured to separately couple the first and second pumping capacitors to the input and output lines such that for any pumping operation either one of the first and second pumping capacitors may selectively not be used; the charge pump further including: a switching network structured to couple the pumping stages either in a serial mode or a parallel mode depending on a state of the switching network.