Importance

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Abstract

A voltage regulation circuit and method where a pre-charge device (PCD) and a power gate device (PGD) are connected to a voltage line that supplies power to at least one additional device. The PCD pre-charges the line toward a supply voltage (Vdd) and PGD limits voltage changes on the voltage line caused by leakage current in the additional device(s) and does so differently under different leakage conditions. Specifically, the PGD is controlled by a variable reference voltage (Vref), which is closer to Vdd when a leakage condition is low relative to when the leakage condition is high. Since Vref is relatively high when the leakage condition is low and relatively low when the leakage condition is high, the power gate device will turn on after a smaller amount of voltage change on the voltage line when the leakage condition is low as compared to when the leakage condition is high.

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First Claim