Patent ID: 7701184

Claim:
A voltage regulator device, comprising: a transistor having a gate coupled to receive a control voltage from a regulator circuit indicative of a magnitude of a voltage at one of a drain or a source of the transistor relative to a target voltage, the transistor having one of the source and the drain coupled to receive a supply voltage; and a limiting circuit operable to limit a magnitude of a difference between the control voltage and the supply voltage, the limiting circuit comprising: a comparator having a first differential input coupled to the gate of the transistor, a second differential input coupled to receive a reference voltage, and an output generating a limiting control voltage corresponding to a comparison between the control voltage at the gate of the transistor and the reference voltage; and a control circuit having an input coupled to the output of the comparator, the control circuit being operable to control a magnitude of the control voltage of the transistor responsive to the limiting control voltage.