A Charge Pump with Improved Charge Transfer Capability and Relieved Bulk Forward Problem

In this paper, novel CMOS charge pump having NMOS and PMOS transfer switches and a bulk-pumping circuit has been proposed. The NMOS and PMOS transfer switches allow the charge pump to improve the current-driving capability at the output. The bulk-pumping circuit effectively solves the bulk forward problem of the charge pump. To verify the effectiveness, the proposed charge pump was designed using a 80-nm CMOS process. The comparison results indicate that the proposed charge pump enhances the current-driving capability by more than 47% with pumping speed improved by 9%, as compared to conventional charge pumps having either NMOS or PMOS transfer switch. They also indicate that the charge pump reduces the worst-case forward bias of p-type bulk by more than 24%, effectively solving the forward current problem.