High-frequency level-up shifter based on 0.18μm vertical metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors with 70% reduction of overshoot voltage above power supply voltage

A high-frequency and high-voltage-tolerant level-up shifter is proposed. In the design, a voltage limiter with a preset and a dynamic biasing feedback circuit are introduced. In a typical simulation, our circuit based on 0.18μm vertical metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) shows a 70% reduction of the overshoot voltage of the MOSFETs above the power supply voltage (1.8 V V_DD) compared with a conventional circuit. It realizes a typical operation frequency of 164MHz when the maximum voltage applied to all MOSFETs is limited to 1.8V. The maximum achievable operation frequency is more than 1.6 times that of a conventional circuit. The variation of the maximum voltage applied to the MOSFETs in our circuit is also reduced by about 24% compared with that of the conventional circuit in a process-corner simulation with the variation of V_DD and temperature.