Patent ID: 7579901

Claim:
A charge pump circuit comprising: a first switching element connected to a power supply; a second switching element connected to a load, wherein said first and second switching elements are controlled by a first clock signal; and a capacitor element connected between said first switching element and second switching element and having a terminal coupled to a second clock signal, wherein said charge pump circuit constructs a step-up charge pump circuit which steps up the input voltage supplied from the power supply, outputs the stepped-up voltage to the load as the output voltage, moves charge from the power supply side to the load side during the charge pump operation and moves charge from the load side to the power supply side after the charge pump operation has been stopped, and during a charging pump operation, said first clock signal goes high when said second clock signal goes low and said first clock signal goes low when said second clock signal goes high, and after the charge pump operation has been stopped, said first clock signal goes high when said second clock signal goes high and said first clock signal goes low when said second clock signal goes low.