Patent · US Expired

Charge pump circuit

US6107862A · kind A · utility

174Cited by
4References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 28, 1997
Grant dateAug 22, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 28, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH02M3/07
  • WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An improved charge pump circuit includes one switch element driven by a ramp waveform to precisely control the output voltage. The circuit includes a switch group having one or more switch elements for transferring a charge to one or more capacitors, a feedback circuit having an error amplifier for amplifying a difference between a divided output voltage and a reference voltage, a compensation circuit for phase compensating the feedback network, an oscillator for generating the ramp waveform, and a control circuit for driving the one or more switch elements. At least one of the switch elements has a resistance that can be adjusted externally and is driven by the ramp waveform such that its resistance varies with time. Accordingly, the charge transferred from a power source to the one or more capacitors can easily be adjusted. When the charge transferred is small, the on-time of the ramp waveform is short and the average value of the resistance is large. The average resistance of the switch group varies when the voltage of the power source varies, so that an output with a fixed voltage and low ripple voltage can be obtained.

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