Bidirectional Voltage Level Shifter with Configurable Voltage Range

Abstract

Advancements in semiconductor device technology is reducing the size of Integrated Circuits. The operating voltages also are reducing in a similar fashion. Here comes the need for using devices operating at different voltages. The communication between devices working at different voltage levels may go erroneous when direct interface is attempted between them. This happens due to the noise margin issues. A voltage level shifter is a device, which is used to interface between two devices operating at different voltages so that the communication between them is proper. A bidirectional voltage level shifter with configurable voltage range is designed. The proposed voltage level shifter is having easily scalable number of channels configured as blocks which can be controlled independently. Each block consisting of a number of channels for which the direction of voltage level shifting is switchable and the voltages configurable within a wide range. SPICE simulations carried out shows the circuit properly operating in 1.2V to 1.8V range.