Patent attributes
A charge pump and method for starting up a charge pump are provided. The charge pump comprises a plurality of charge pump cells and a start-up control circuit. Each charge pump cell has a clock terminal for receiving a delayed clock signal, an input terminal for receiving an input voltage, and an output terminal for providing a boosted voltage in response to receiving the clock signal and the input voltage. The start-up control circuit is coupled to the clock terminals of each of the plurality of charge pump cells. The start-up control circuit is for delaying the delayed clock signal provided to each charge pump cell of the plurality of charge pump cells. Each of the charge pump cells receives the delayed clock signal having a different predetermined delay so that each of the plurality of charge pump cells are enabled in a predetermined sequence during start-up of the charge pump.