Current Mirror Based Low Voltage Single Supply CMOS Level up–Shifter

Abstract

A current mirror based low voltage single supply CMOS level up–shifter (fcm–ls) for upconverting signals from 0.4 to 0.8V power supply domain is presented in this work. Based on the post–layout simulation, fcm–ls provides 48.5% lower energy consumption and 29.7% better speed than a similar circuit topology (vl–ls). Both circuits are implemented in 65nm CMOS process and use low threshold voltage transistors. With a power supply voltage of 0.8V, and an input voltage range of 0.4V, we obtain up to 63.4% energy–delay–product (EDP) improvement at 500MHz frequency and 590fF output loading, over reference circuit [1]. Active area is optimized to achieve low static and dynamic energy consumption at the maximum load capacitance. The limits of proposed circuit are verified using the post–layout simulation results.