Reed Smith LLP
Voltage supply with low power and leakage current
As the chip manufacturing process progresses towards making smaller and finer chip circuitry, leakage currents of different types including the subthreshold leakage current, gate tunneling leakage current and GIDL (Gate-Induced Drain Leakage) current increase. These leakage currents increase the electrical current consumption of the chip. In a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a circuit block having a first MOS transistor, and a leakage current control circuit having a second MOS transistor and a current source, a source and drain circuit of the second MOS transistor is formed between the power supply line of the circuit block and a voltage point where operating voltage is supplied. This current source is connected to the power supply line and in a first state, the power supply line is driven to a first voltage by the second MOS transistor, and in a second state, the power supply line is controlled at a second voltage by current flow in the current source and, the voltage applied across the source and drain of the first MOS transistor in the second state is smaller than the voltage applied across the source and drain of the first MOS transistor in the first state.
Renesas Technology Corporation
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additional inventional inventional
Hiroyuki Kiyoo
Mizuno Itoh