An overview of charge pumping circuits for flash memory applications

Charge pump is an indispensable component in flash memory systems in order to generate high operation voltages for programming flash memory cells. In this paper, we review some high-efficiency charge pump circuits that fulfill the stringent requirements in modern flash memory technology. The performance of these charge pump circuits will be compared in terms of voltage conversion efficiency, power efficiency, area, and process requirement. Some advanced charge pump circuits proposed recently will also be introduced.