Patent ID: 7911263

Claim:
A semiconductor circuit for mitigating leakage current, comprising: at least one leakage current target unit comprising a target semiconductor device connected to a first switch control logic device, said target semiconductor device being in a dormant mode; a current shift monitor unit connected to said leakage current target unit, said monitor unit to collect leakage current from said target semiconductor device for two consecutive predefined temporal periods, to convert the two collected leakage currents to two corresponding voltages, and measure the voltage difference therebetween; a reference voltage generator that outputs a voltage signal used as a reference to define a critical shift in leakage current; a comparator which receives the outputs of the current shift monitor unit and the reference voltage generator, said comparator being configured to compare said voltage difference from said current shift monitor unit and said reference voltage generator and to propagate an alert signal to the leakage current target unit when the leakage voltage output from said current shift monitor unit exceeds the reference voltage; a repair voltage generator which outputs a repair voltage to said first switch control logic device, said repair voltage being applied from said first switch control logic device to the gate of the target semiconductor device in response to said alert signal from said comparator, said alert signal thereby causing said target semiconductor device to switch to an active mode for repair.