New dynamic logic-level converters for high performance application

Two new logic-level converting circuits are presented for high performance application. One of them is the dynamic logic-level converter (DLC). It has fast transition time in converting the logic-level, and its power consumption is smaller than that of conventional approaches. The other is a dynamic logic-level converter for duty ratio conserving (DDLC). The duty ratio or cycle of a level converted signal generated by the DDLC is equal to that of an input signal. The devices are applied to a 72 Mb DDR SRAM. The DLC and the DDLC allow the core of the chip to operate at a lower voltage level (1.2 V) than the I/O supply voltage level (1.5 V or 1.8 V). In this application, transition time of the DLC is less than 120 psec, and the duty cycle for signal converted by the DDLC are higher than that of an input signal by 1.1%. The area overhead in the chip is 0.03%.