High-frequency level-up shifter based on 0.18 µm 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 0.18 µm 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 VDD) compared with a conventional circuit. It realizes a typical operation frequency of 164 MHz when the maximum voltage applied to all MOSFETs is limited to 1.8 V. 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 VDD and temperature.