Current recycling in linear regulators for biomedical implants

Abstract

A novel current recycling dual linear regulating power supply is proposed in this paper. In systems, such as biomedical implants, requiring a high actuation supply voltage and a number of lower supply voltages generated by linear regulators, our technique allows the linear regulators to be stacked, effectively reducing the overall current consumption to that of a single regulator. We design a dual linear power supply in a 0.35µm high-voltage CMOS process and simulated results demonstrate a power saving in load of up to 49.4% compared with a conventional implementation.