A Low-Power and High-Speed Voltage Level Shifter Based on a Regulated Cross-Coupled Pull-Up Network

摘要

In this brief, a fast and very low power voltage level shifter (LS) is presented. By using a new regulated cross-coupled (RCC) pull-up network, the switching speed is boosted and the dynamic power consumption is highly reduced. The proposed LS has the ability to convert input signals with voltage levels much lower than the threshold voltage of an MOS device to higher nominal supply voltage levels. The presented LS occupies a small silicon area owing to its very low number of elements and is ultra-low-power, making it suitable for low-power applications such as implantable medical devices and wireless sensor networks. Results of the post-layout simulation in a standard 0.18-mu m CMOS technology show that the proposed circuit can convert up input voltage levels as low as 80 mV. The power dissipation and propagation delay of the proposed LS for a low/high supply voltages of 0.4/1.8 V and input frequency of 1 MHz are 123.1 nW and 23.7 ns, respectively.