A Scalable 20V Charge-Pump-Based Driver in 65nm CMOS Technology

This brief presents a 20V square-wave output driver in standard bulk CMOS technology powered from a 2.5V supply. The proposed high-voltage driver is based on a bidirectional charge pump architecture which is by default modular, scalable and maintains all device voltage tolerances. Thanks to deep nwell isolation and a new all-nMOS driver stage design, we could extend the voltage range of our 65nm technology from 12 V to 20 V reliably. The driver uses thick-oxide devices readily available at no extra cost and occupies 0.13 mm² of area. The driver has a 20V swing when driving a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$100~\mu \text{A}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> load, fully switches a 50pF capacitive load at 25 kHz, and has a 48 % peak power efficiency.