Design of 2xVDD-Tolerant I/O Buffer with 1xVDD CMOS Devices

Abstract

A new 2xVDD-tolerant I/O buffer realized with only 1xVDD devices has been proposed and verified in a 0.18-mu m CMOS process. With the dynamic source output technique and the new gate-controlled circuit, the new proposed I/O buffer can transmit and receive the signals with the voltage swing twice as high as the normal power supply voltage (VDD) without suffering gate-oxide reliability problem. The proposed 2xVDD-tolerant I/O circuit solution can be implemented in different nanoscale CMOS processes to meet the mixed-voltage interface applications in microelectronic systems.