Patent ID: 7592857

Claim:
A charge-pump circuit for outputting a output voltage signal that is higher than an input voltage signal, comprising: a plurality of diode equivalent networks connected in a sequence, between any two of said adjacent diode equivalent networks having a node with a corresponding voltage-boost level, wherein the low voltage end in said diode equivalent network with lowest voltage-boost level is the input of said charge-pump circuit, and said input receives the input voltage signal, a last node at the end of the sequence of the plurality of diode equivalent networks being the output node of the charge-pump circuit; at least a voltage-boost capacitor network having an end to electronically couple to one of said node and the other end to electronically couple to an impulse signal, wherein said impulse signal has a high-voltage level and a low-voltage level to raise a voltage level at said node with voltage-boost as said high-voltage level and said low-voltage level switch; and at least a reverse current cut-off circuit electronically coupled to said diode equivalent networks to enable and disable said diode equivalent networks, wherein said reverse current cut-off circuit has at least two conductive paths and receives the impulse signal that determines conductivity of each conductive path, wherein the output voltage at the output node of the charge-pump circuit being the input voltage boosted by the voltage-boost level provided by each node.