A Wide‐Range Voltage and High‐Speed Progressive Level Shifter With Charge Pump for Embedded Flash Memory

ABSTRACT As embedded flash memory advances to smaller process nodes, supply voltage reductions are necessary to lower dynamic power consumption and ensure the safe operation of increasingly smaller transistors. Embedded flash memory requires reliable signal conversion across multiple voltage domains, a task typically handled by level shifters. However, achieving robust level shifter performance becomes significantly more challenging as supply voltages decrease. This paper presents a wide‐range voltage, high‐speed progressive level shifter utilizing a combination of 1.1‐V thin‐oxide and 5‐V thick‐oxide transistors. When combined with a charge pump, the generated intermediate voltage facilitates efficient signal conversion from low‐ to multiple high‐voltage domains, enabling the proposed LS to achieve robust performance. Postlayout simulations in a 40‐nm CMOS process demonstrate a transition delay of 1.01 ns and energy consumption of 587.86 fJ for a 0.75‐ to 4.5‐V conversion. For a 0.75‐ to 9‐V conversion, the delay is 1.31 ns with energy consumption of 3863.26 fJ, operating at 50 MHz with a 15‐fF output load. These results underscore the robustness and efficiency of the proposed LS, positioning it as a strong candidate for embedded flash memory applications in advanced nodes with reduced supply voltages.