LEAKAGE CURRENT CONTROL SYSTEM FOR LOW-VOLTAGE CMOS CIRCUIT

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control circuit which controls leakage currents in a low-voltage CMOS circuit and, at the same time, can selectively reduce the leakage currents. SOLUTION: A leakage current control circuit 16A is provided with a reference current circuit 118 which is integrated in a semiconductor area and works as a current source, a low-pass current-to-voltage converter 114 which works as a bias circuit, and a testing element 116 which is composed of an MOS transistor. Since the gate and source terminals of the element 116 are short- circuited to each other, only a leakage current flows through the element 116. The reference current circuit 118 supplies input signals to the element 116 and converter 114. The converter 114 compares the input signals with the reference signal corresponding a desired leakage current and supplies a bias signal from the results of the comparison. Because of the bias signal, the leakage current flowing through the element 116 can be controlled in accordance with the reference signal.