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VDD~ Y Y _I U
Input output
CLK
-
CLK
I A 4-stage Dickson charge pump with ideal
(a)
Figure 2
diodes.
wherefcLK is the clock frequency, also known as the 'pumping' Figure 3 (a) Schematic of a PMOS-only charge transfer
frequency. block (CTB). (b) A 4-stage constant threshold
voltage charge pump.
The Dickson Charge Pump
Many researchers have analyzed and improved capacitive each pumping stage, resulting in a variation of the effective
charge pump designs in order to maximize gain andlor optimize threshold voltage Vr. Equation (4) can he updated to take this
efficiency ([7]-[I I]). Nevertheless, they all stem from the Dick- effect into account for an N-stage charge pump, resulting in
son charge pump that was originally conceived based on ideal
diodes 1121. By employing the principle in Figure 1, a 4-stage
Dickson charge pump can be constructed as shown in Figure 2.
Assuming a constant forward-bias voltage V, across all diodes,
it can he shown that the output voltage of an N-stage Dickson where
charge pump can be expressed by
V,, = VDD+ N .VG -V, , (3)
The main problem with this implementation is the increasing
where the pumping gain V , must be greater than zero, and is
threshold voltage Vrfi,. Since VTfl+,,is larger than V,,, there will
defined as
he a value Nmaxwhere the pumping gain V,,,, will cease to be
greater than zero. In other words, a charge pump with ",+I
stages will no more generate higher voltages than an N,,stage
design.
where V,, is the peak-to-peak pumping voltage. Equation (3) Constant Threshold Voltage Charge Pumps
can be simplified to
This type of charge pumps mitigates the limitation of the
V,,,, = VDD+ N .(ecLKV d ) - V, ,
- (5)
varying threshold voltage encountered in the basic CMOS Dick-
son design [9]. The main idea is to control the threshold voltage
provided that the sizes of the coupling capacitors C, are much change, through an adaptive body voltage reference. As shown in
larger than those of the stray capacitances C , Figure 3a, by connecting the body terminal through auxiliary
transistors MSx and MDx, the problem of increasing threshold
c, >> c, , (6) voltages can he minimized.
and that the overall sum of the leaking currents and of the output The body voltage is set by the auxiliary transistors MSx and
current is negligible. This would he the case for the devices of MDx in each charge transfer block (CTB). When Mx is forward
interest in this work, namely RF MEMS switches and varicaps. biased, MDx becomes forward-biased as well, and it sets the body
potential to he approximately equal to the potential of the drain of
CMOS Charge Pumps Mx. When Mx is reverse-biased, MSx connects the body voltage to
The Dickson charge pump in Figure 2 can be implemented in the source of Mx. Since the source-body voltage in each CTB
CMOS by replacing the diodes with diode-connected MOS tran- stage no longer increases, the threshold voltage V , will remain
sistors. However, due to the body effect in the MOS devices, a relatively constant throughout the chain. Hence, the charge pump
change in the source-body voltage V, of each diode will occur at equation becomes identical to that of an ideal-diode Dickson
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output!-' .Input
I P-Substrate
technology with a triple-well feature. This requirement has the the fall time I, expected to be much longer l h i s might slightly
disadvantage o f higher cost and higher risk o f latch-up. A PMOS affect the tuning of a MIiVS varicap. houever. most ME.MS
implementation i s preferred. The three transistors in a suitches ui11 not bu affected by ihis, unless the chargc pump
PMOS-only charge transfer block can share the same n-well, and voltage drups uncxpectcdl! beluiv the actuation vdiagc, which in
will be separated from the n-wells of the other blocks. As shown Lnlikcly Ihe output signd u a s round to have appruximaiely
i n Figure 4, the n-well can he biased by the auxiliary transistors, 150 inV u t ripple peak-tu-peak. ai maximum DC uutput voltagc
allowing a reasonable level of control ofthe body voltage. o f 14.8 V T h i s rcprcsent, about I .O Yo ofrippling The maximum
u u t p ~ tp w e r delivemblc intu a I .\IQ rcssti\e load I\ q ~ i t v r i -
matsly 220 .W.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL & S I M U L A T I O N RESULTS
According to siniulatiun. a l0P0 difkrcnce in the value of the
A 16-stage constant V , charge pump was fabricated in a stan-
mdrinium ;ichievahle oul@uiDC \,olVagc was ubserved. 'This I\
dard CMOS 0.18-pm technology. I t employs metal-insula-
attributed to various process vinations Finslly, simulation
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showed a + I O % variance in the output voltage for a temperature
[2] T. K. K. Tsang and M. N. El-Gamal, “Micro-Elecnamcchanical Vari-
variation from -55 “C to 100 “C. able Capacitors for RF Applications.” 45th M i d w s t Symposium on
Table 1 summarizes the characteristics and measured per- Circuits ond Systems, August 2002.
formance of the 16-stage constant threshold voltage charge pump 131 K. Lee and M. N. El-Gamal. “A Verv Law-Voltaae (0.8 VI CMOS
presented in this paper. Receiver Frontend for 5 GHz RF Appiications,” /SEAS 2 O O i Vol. 1.
pp. 125-128, May2002.
Table 1 Summary of charge pump performance. [4] R. Baki and M. N.El-Gamal, “A Low-Power, 5-70MHz. 7th-Order
Log-Domain Filter with Programmable Boost, Group Delay, and Gain
for Hard Disk Drive Applications,” to appear in IEEE Journal of Solid
Parameter Value Stare Circuits.
[SI A. H. Mostafa, M. N.El-Gamal, and R. A. Rafla, “A Sub-l V 4 GHz
Clock Voltages - 500 mV to 1.2 V CMOS VCO, and a 12.5 GHz Oscillator far Law-Voltage and
High-Frequency Applications,” IEEE Transactions on Circuitr and
Clock Frequency Range 100 kHz - 75 MHz Syslemr I/: Analog and Digital Signal Proeersing. Vol. 48. No. IO,
pp. 919-926, October 2001.
[6] A. H. Mostafa and M. N. E l - G a d , “A CMOS VCO ArehitecNrc
Best Settling Time @ I M n load 65 ps Suitable for Sub-l Volt High-Frequency (8.7.10 GHz) RF Applica-
tions,” Inrematianal Symposium on Low Power Electronicr and Des@
ISLPED’OI, pp. 247-250. August 2001
Output Voltage Range - 0 V t o 14.8V
171 1. Shin, ILY. Chung, Y. 1. Park, and H. S.Min. “A New Charge Pump
without Degradation in Threshold Voltage Due to Body Effect,” IEEE J.
Power Delivered to a I MR Load 220 pw Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 35, pp. 1227-1230, Aug. 2000.
[SI J:T. Wu and K.-L. Chang, “MOS Charge Pump for Law-Voltage
Opcratian.” IEEE J. Solid-Store Circuits, Vol. 33, pp. 592-597, Apr.
V. CONCLUSION 1998.
A low-voltage and short settling time charge p u m p w a s fahri- 191 C.-C Wang and J:C. Wu, “Efficiency lmprovcment in Charge Pump
cated using a standard digital CMOS process. It delivers per- Circuits,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, Val. 32, no. 6, pp. 852-860, Junc
1997.
formances comparable to the ideal Dickson charge pump. This
work should enable easier integration of MEMS devices with [IO] H. San, H. Kobayashi, T. Myono, T. Iijima, and N. Kuroiwa,
“Highly-EWcicnt Low-Voltagc-Operation Charge Pump Circuits Using
state-of-the-art very low voltage CMOS circuitry.
BaotstrappedGateTransferSwitches,” TIEEJapon, Vol.l2O-C. No. IO,
pp. 1339-1345, 2000.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT [ I l l T. TanzawaandT. Tanaka,”ADynamicAnalysisaftheDicksanCharge
The authors would like to thank NSERC, MICRONET, and Pump Circuit,” IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 32, No. 8,
ReSMiQ for their financial support, and the Canadian Micro- pp. 1231-1240, Aug. 1997.
electronic Corporation (CMC) for chip fabrication. [I21 I. F. Dickson, “On-Chip High-Voltage Generation in NMOS lntegratcd
Circuits Using an Improved Voltage Multiplier Techniquc,” IEEE J.
Solid-Slate Circuits, Vol. SC-I 1, pp. 374-378, Mar. 1976.
REFERENCES
[I] G. M. Rebeiz and J. B. Muldavin, “RF MEMS Switches and Switch
Circuits,”lEEE Microwave Magazine, pp. 59-71, December 2001
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