Patent ID: 7259610

Claim:
A level shift circuit comprising: a short channel stage that is arranged to receive an upper input voltage, and to provide a first voltage in response to the upper input voltage, wherein the short channel stage includes one or more short channel components; a long channel stage that is arranged to receive the first voltage and a bias voltage, and to provide an output voltage in response to the first voltage and the bias voltage such that the output voltage tracks a logic input voltage and an upper value for the output voltage is based on the upper input voltage, wherein the long channel stage includes one or more long channel components, and wherein each of the one or more short channel components has a channel length that is less than a channel length of each of the one or more long channel components; and a switching stage that is arranged to control, in part, the long channel stage and the short channel stage based, in part, on a lower input voltage and the logic input voltage, wherein the long channel stage is further arranged to provide an inverted output voltage having a logical level that is inverted relative to the output voltage, and wherein the switching stage is arranged such that providing the inverted output voltage is achieved in such a way that logical inversion of the logic input voltage is unnecessary.