A charge pump with enhanced charge transfer for energy harvesting applications

In this paper, we present a charge pump structure based on an improved charge transfer scheme. The charge transfer scheme is analyzed, providing a theoretical discussion that shows the fundamental idea upon which the proposed approach is based. The proposed transfer scheme was implemented in a cross-coupled charge pump that was designed and simulated in a 0.35-μm CMOS technology. Simulation results confirm the better performance of the proposed architecture with respect to the conventional scheme: a significant improvement is ensured in terms of current driving capability (output resistance lowered by more than 20% with respect to a conventional architecture) and power efficiency, which is higher over the whole current range, as is essential for energy harvesting applications.