Patent ID: 7411376

Claim:
A voltage regulator comprising: a sense transistor through which a sense current flows in accordance with a magnitude of a load current; a sense resistor through which the sense current flows; a control transistor that controls the load current in accordance with a voltage across the sense resistor; a current measurement transistor that measures the sense current flowing through the sense transistor, the current measurement transistor being disposed adjacent to the sense transistor; a measuring characteristics transistor that measures characteristics of the control transistor, the measuring characteristic transistor being disposed adjacent to the control transistor; and a fuse element that is cut after the current measurement transistor measures the sense current and the measuring characteristics transistor measures the characteristics of the control transistor so that a current cannot flow through the current measurement transistor and the measuring characteristics transistor; wherein a current that flows through the current measurement transistor is equal to the sense current that flows through the sense transistor.