Level shifter circuits may enable different circuit components to operate at different power supply voltages. Operating in different logic voltage ranges serves to increase device reliability, decrease power consumption, and lower excess heat generation by providing specific voltage ranges to specific circuit components. By limiting specific components to specific operating voltages, power consumption and heat generation may be easier to control and device reliability may be increased. Utilizing different logic voltages also presents significant problems as a digital high or low for one digital logic component may not have the same voltage values for another digital logic component. Therefore, it may be difficult or even impossible for components with different voltages to operate together. Level shifter circuits may serve as interfaces (or voltage translators or converters) between different logic device components to shift the voltage level of one component to an appropriate level of a second component to ensure adequate coherence between the voltage levels of the two components.
Traditional high-voltage level-shifters suffer from high power consumption due to crowbar currents when they translate a digital logic signal from one power supply level to another power supply level. Traditional high-voltage level-shifters are also incapable of level-shifting from one power supply level to one or more power supply levels such that power supplies are decoupled from one another.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds