Patent · US Expired

Charge pump circuit with source-sink current steering

US5801578A · kind A · utility

30Cited by
5References
13Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateDec 16, 1996
Grant dateSep 1, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateDec 16, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH03L7/0896
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A charge pump circuit includes a current mirror circuit of current-sourcing and current-sinking FETs and a current steering circuit of cross coupled differential pairs of FETs. Nominal current flowing in the current-sourcing and current-sinking FETs is set. The current is for charging and discharging a capacitor of an external filter. During charging of the capacitor, the current through the current-sourcing FET is directed to the capacitor and the current through the current-sinking FET is directed from a low impedance voltage source. During discharging of the filter capacitor, the current through the current-sourcing FET is directed to the low impedance voltage source and the current through the current-sinking FET is directed from the capacitor. The current flowing in the current-sourcing and current-sinking FETs is nominally constant, regardless of the tri-state condition, charging or discharging, with the result that power supply noise is reduced. Current change in the power supply rails is reduced when switching from current-sourcing to current-sinking or vice versa. By using cascode FETs in both of the current-sourcing and current-sinking FET circuits, power supply noise rej…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.