A self-starting internal power supply system suitable for high-voltage applications

A self-starting internal power supply system suitable for high voltage applications is presented in this paper. The proposed internal power supply system can automatically produce suitable relative-low supply voltage for internal modules in the whole systems. In this way, conventional high-voltage reference modules can be avoided, which are essential circuits in most high-voltage applications. Besides, the proposed self-starting circuit can be completely shut down by itself as along as the internal power supply modules enter into normal work conditions. As a result, the chip area and consumption are significantly reduced. Moreover, the power supply voltage for internal modules after start-up state is generated by an internal regulated voltage, which is more stable with little fluctuations and can be used to improve power supply noise attenuation (PSNA) performance of internal modules in the whole systems. The proposed self-starting internal power supply system has been implemented in a 0.6-µm CDMOS process. Experimental results show that the presented supply system can work properly without large area occupation and there is no extra power consumption while the internal power supply is successfully established.