Patent ID: 7692452

Claim:
A semiconductor chip comprising: an internal circuit; at least one power gating transistor configured to switch a supply of at least one drive voltage into the internal circuit; a system manager configured to generate a control signal in accordance with an activation state of the internal circuit; and at least one current regulator configured to control an amount of a current flowing through the at least one power gating transistor in response to the control signal, wherein the at least one current regulator is a plurality of current regulators, the at least one drive voltage is a plurality of drive voltages, the at least one power gating transistor is a plurality of power gating transistors, each of the plurality of power gating transistors being configured to switch a supply of one of the plurality of drive voltages into the internal circuit, and each of the plurality of current regulators is configured to control an amount of current flowing through a corresponding at least one power gating transistor of the plurality of power gating transistors.