The present inventive concept relates to a voltage dropping apparatus, a voltage switching apparatus, and an internal voltage supply apparatus using the same.
A device and a module used in a semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) have recently been minimized in terms of the sizes thereof. For example, a length of a channel in a semiconductor device and a thickness of a gate oxide have been decreased. Accordingly, a level of a breakdown voltage of the semiconductor device has been reduced.
However, a level of a required supply voltage is still higher than the level of the breakdown voltage of the semiconductor device by two times or more. Thus, there may arise an issue in that a semiconductor IC requires a protection circuit in order to prevent an internal semiconductor device from being damaged due to the breakdown voltage.
In a case in which a semiconductor IC uses a device having a high level of a breakdown voltage, such an issue as above may be solved. In this case, the use of an additional layer is necessary in a semiconductor process. Further, this results in an increase of the overall size of a semiconductor IC.
Patent Publication 1 below relates to a power gating circuit and a method thereof, which fails to disclose a solution to the issue detailed above.