Efficient voltage conversion for SRAM low standby power modes

A monolithic switched-capacitor voltage converter to drive the virtual Vss for low standby power "drowsy" modes is presented. The voltage converter has been fabricated on a 0.13-μm digital CMOS process. Test chip measurements demonstrate current drive capability from 10 μA to 100 μA with power efficiency over 86%. The test chip measurements also demonstrate that the chip level power efficiency of the converter is at least 2x better than the conventional linear regulation approach, which is commonly used in high volume commercially available designs.