Level shifter with low quiescent current
Research Links
A slightly different implementation:
Ecommerce stock control site – sistemamatriz.com
Research Links
I noticed my tire shop is using what appears to be a rather low end web tool to manage their stock. This points out business opportunity.

Capacitor Charge Sharing
When reading about charge pumps you will encounter a phrase like "they act like resistors". The following example demonstrates why they say that.
So each capacitor ends up with 1/2 Volt on it. That means the system starts with 1/2 Joule of energy and when the transfer of charge is done total energy in the system is 1/4 Joule.
So what happened to the lost 1/4 joule? It got dissipated in the series resistor. What about if you do not use a resistor and just charge up C1 and connect it to C2?
Research Links
Protected: Short Story: Gabes Undercover Nightspot
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Charge Pump Articles – No Inductors Allowed
XFAB Links
- FeatureXplorer
- Summary Sheet: 0.18 μm Process Family: XH018 0.18 Micron Mixed-Signal HV CMOS Technology
- 0.18 μm Process Family: XH018 0.18 Micron Modular Analog Mixed HV Technology
- Ambient Light Sensing Made Easy with X-FAB – has photo diode side profiles
- XHB06 Photo Diode Evaluation Chips – See image below for cross sections:
XFAB has integrated photo diodes in the XH018 process. However it was difficult to find the scaling factor for the light input pin on the photo diode schematic symbol. The only place I have found it thus far is in the photo diode model:
The photodiode light input is a third terminal on the diode symbol. In order to do a simulation one must know how light intensity scales to light input terminal voltage. This information was discovered in the comments one of the photodiode library files.
Excerpt from file: dphoa.scs
* TERMINALS: anode=PSUB, cathode=DNWELL, lpower=lpower[1uV==1uW]
* VARIABLES: area[m2], perimeter[m], wavelength[1==1um]
* TNOM = 27 deg C; TEMP=27 deg C
Paper Links
- On the Feasability of Indoor Light Energy Harvesting for Wireless Sensor Networks
- Analysis-Design-Implementation-Integrated-High-Performance-Charge-Pumps
- Charge_Pump_Intro
- Efficiency-Comparison-between-Doubler-and-Dickson-Charge-Pumps
A 0.35 um CMOS Solar Energy Scavenger with Power Storage Management System
Cross couple voltage doubler.
Design of Very Low Voltage CMOS Rectifier Circuits – Bulk connection is very important in voltage multipliers. In a Dickson charge pump DTMOS connection is the one that works best. That assumes you are using isolated transistors so you do not end up with elevated theshold voltages.
Dickson model above simulates the action of the main line of the voltage multiplier but does not cover the power required by the clock inverters that drive the 2 phases. Thus it does not apply for over all efficiency calculations.
The current of the 5V section of the level shifter is too high for very low consumption circuits. My simulations had it at 10uAmp @ 1MHz.
This charge recycling scheme does not work if the stray capacitance is negligible compared to the pump capacitance. My lack of understanding lead me to try using it with my test design simulations. When no difference in current consumption showed up I had to scatch my head.
- Power Efficiency Optimization of Fully Integrated Dickson Charge Pumps
- Inductorless Converter Energy Harvesting 1.2µW BGR
Voltage Regulation for Energy Scavenging
Circuit Implementation Notes
- Area Efficiency Improvment of CMOS Charge Pumps: If p is the ratio of stray capacitance to desired capacitance (Cp p Ca) and is determined by the type of capacitors used. For double poly capacitors, this value is usually between 10 and 20 percent. Thin oxide MOS capacitors provide 5-15% stray capacitance, with a higher capacitance per unit area than double poly capacitors. For poly-metal capacitors, p can be as much as 20-50%.
Good Pizza in Florianopolis
Proven Good
- Villa Acoriana – near UFSC 048 3364-5191 52R$ for 8 slice pie – All time favorite
- Pizza Florenza – 2nd best. Ordered a lot in Sao Jose location
On the list to try
- Juca Pato Centro – Florianópolis Av. Rio Branco, 262 (48) 3225 5191 Kobrasol – São José Rua Delamar José da Silva, 269 (48) 3259 3707
SD Card Hacking
Research Links On Hacking MicroSD Cards SD Card Hacking GitHub: This is a collection of utilities and source to work with assembly for the AX211 SD processor
Dickson Charge Pump Currents
There is a significant transient during the turn on time due to charging up the charge pump capacitors. This pushes the design to have lower charge pump capacitances. However make them too small and the charge pump stops working because of capacitive voltage divider formed with them against gate capacitance to ground / bulk.
Note:
- In the schematic below used for this analysis that the charge pump chain current is separated from the inverter drivers.
- The chain output current is less than the input current due to MOSFET leakage

















