A 1.8V to 10V CMOS level shifter for RFID transponders

A 1.8V-to-10V high-voltage tolerant level shifter (HVT level shifter) is presented in this paper. This new topology of HVT level shifter makes all the transistors working in safe operating region, and consequently greatly enhances the circuit's reliability. It has been fabricated in 0.18 µm CMOS process, and successfully integrated in an embedded EEPROM memory with 10 V programming/erasing voltages in the passive UHF RFID transponders.