I/O circuits (e.g., I/O buffers) are included components (e.g., transceivers) of many electronic devices or systems, such as computers, tablets, cellular phones, and memory cards. Many conventional I/O circuits operate at a relatively high voltage using low voltage devices (e.g., transistors), for example a 3.3V IO using 1.8V devices. In such conventional I/O circuits, a reference voltage is often used in order to protect the low voltage devices from voltage stress that may cause lifetime degradation. Although the device reliability issues are addressed, such conventional I/O circuits may suffer from one or more other issues, as described in detail below.