Patent ID: 8665255

Claim:
A charge-pumping power supply circuit for boosting an input supply voltage from outside, comprising: a booster section including a charging capacitor and an input-side and an output-side switching elements connected with a first terminal of the charging capacitor, for boosting a voltage supplied to the charging capacitor via the input-side switching element and outputting a boosted voltage as a boosted supply voltage via the output-side switching element; a driver section for generating control signals for the input-side and the output-side switching elements to turn on and off oppositely to each other; and a level shifter supplied with a first clock signal and a second clock signal each having a same amplitude as the other and a voltage alternating oppositely to each other, for respectively converting the first and second clock signals into a third clock signal and a fourth clock signal each having a greater amplitude than the first and second clock signals by at least the threshold voltage, wherein each of the input-side and the output-side switching elements is provided by an N-channel transistor of a positive threshold voltage, wherein the driver section generates the control signals so that the control signal for the output-side switching element to turn on has a voltage higher than the boosted voltage by at least the threshold voltage, wherein the charging capacitor has a second terminal supplied with the first clock signal, and wherein the driver section generates, based on the third and the fourth clock signals, two respective pulse signals each having a same phase as the first and the second clock signals and a voltage alternating oppositely to each other between the input supply voltage and a voltage which is greater than the input supply voltage by the amplitude of the third and the fourth clock signals, as a first and a second switching control signals constituting the control signals.