Patent ID: 8416006

Claim:
An electronic device comprising a level shifter for performing a voltage shift of a low level input signal of a first voltage domain to a high level output signal of a second voltage domain, the level shifter comprising: a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor, the high-side transistor being coupled with a first side of its channel to the supply voltage level of the second voltage domain and with a second side of its channel to a first side of the low-side transistor so as to provide an output node between the channel of the high-side transistor and the channel of the low-side transistor for driving a load with the high level output signal of the second voltage domain; the level shifter being configured to have a first state in which the high-side transistor is conducting and the low-side transistor is not conducting, a second state in which the low-side transistor is conducting and the high-side transistor is not conducting and a third state in which the high-side transistor is not conducting and the low-side transistor is not conducting; a gate driving stage being coupled between the supply voltage level of the second supply voltage domain and a reference voltage and configured to receive control signals having voltage levels of the first voltage domain and to control a control gate of the low-side transistor; and wherein the gate driving stage comprises a first control stage that is configured to bias in the third state the control gate of the low-side transistor in response to the voltage level at the output node for maintaining a first voltage difference between the output node and the control gate of the low-side transistor that is enough to keep the low-side transistor not conducting.