Charge Pump

1st Half cycle:

● Capacitor C2 assumed to be fully

charged whereas capacitor C1 gets
charged during the first half cycle.
● Here Vb is the voltage applied i.e., 5V
● There will be some internal resistance,
here it is around 100 Ω.
● In the graphs we can see that during
the first half cycle, capacitor C1 is
charging.
● It gets charged to around 4.3V
2nd Half cycle:

● During the second half cycle, the circuit

will be as shown in the figure.
● Now the equivalent capacitance of the
circuit is,

● Here, C1=C2=C so the equivalent

capacitance will be,
● We know that Charge Q in the capacitor can
be given by

● Here, C is the capacitance and V is the

potential difference applied between the
capacitor plates.
● From the first half cycle, We know that
capacitor C2 charged to 5V. So the circuit will
be as shown in the adjacent figure.
● From the second half cycle, the circuit will be
as follows,
● Now there is an additional voltage
applied, so the charges gets
redistributed.
● Capacitor C1 discharges and C2 charges.
● Now this charge redistribution can be
given by

● Here V = 4.3V capacitor C1 discharges by

Q and C2 charges by Q.
● Here the diode D2 has a barrier potential
of 0.7V.
● So Capacitor C2 charges to around 6.8V.
● As soon as they reaches this level diode
D2 opens the circuit.
● Now the circuit will look as shown in the
adjacent figure.
● It remains as such till the next half cycle.
● Below shown are the graphs for the first
two cycles.
● We can see that the diode current I(D2) is
zero as soon as the capacitor C2 charged
to 6.8V indicating that no charges are
flowing.
● Now for the next half cycle capacitor C1
again gets charged to 4.3V.
● Here we should note that capacitor C2
won’t get discharged because of the
diode, it allows the charge flow in only
one direction.
3rd Half Cycle:
● During the third half cycle, capacitor C1 gets charged and charge on the capacitor C2 remains constant.
4th Half Cycle:

● Here again the equivalent capacitance is

● Here C1=C2=C, so the equivalent capacitance,

● Charge Q in the capacitor can be given by

● Now there is an additional voltage of 2.5V.
● This additional charge gets redistributed,

● Here V = 4.3V capacitor C1 discharges by Q

and C2 charges by Q.
● Here the diode D2 has a barrier potential of
0.7V.
● Here C1 discharges and C2 gets charged
Charge Pump Ladder:
First half cycle:
● For the first half cycle circuit will look as shown in the figure, diodes D1, D3,D4 will get forward biased and
diode D2 will get reverse biased.
● Capacitors C1, C3,C4 will get charged during this half cycle and capacitor C2 will remain in initial state.
● We know that in charging case , Charge equation can be given by

● According to this equation capacitor will get charged to a particular voltage as mentioned in the figure.
2nd half cycle: