A high-performance charge pump topology for very-low-voltage applications

This brief presents a novel charge pump suitable to work under very-low-voltage supply. The circuit exploits a novel charge transfer switch made up by the combination of a NMOS and a PMOS transistor whose gates are connected to internal nodes of the charge pump to enhance overdrive voltage. This solution allows working with supply voltage values lower that the MOS threshold voltage. Post layout simulation results using a 65-nm CMOS standard technology show the effectiveness of the proposed solution and its advantage as compared to a traditional latched charge pump in terms of high current driving range, power efficiency and speed.