Patent 7262996 was granted and assigned to Micron Technology on August, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A programmable soft-start control circuit having two memory registers for regulating the ramp-up time period of charging current in a charge pump of an integrated circuit. The two memory registers are programmed to provide two different soft-start settings for two distinct charge pump turn-on conditions, initial power-up and flash programming. Charge pump feedback logic is employed to detect the charge pump turn-on condition and activate the proper pre-programmed soft-start setting loaded in the memory registers.