Portable battery-powered de-vices often spend most of their life in standby mode, in which the quiescent current of an internal boost converter continuously bleeds the battery. The quiescent current during standby can be larger than the actual load current. Though several inductor-based converters offer maximum quiescent current of less than 10 μA, designers usually prefer or require a regulated charge pump for cost-sensitive designs that must be intrinsically safe. Off-the-shelf regulated charge pumps with output-current capabilities of at least 10 mA have typical minimum quiescent currents of 50 to 100 μA.
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