SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE AND METHOD TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF ACTIVE CIRCUIT IN THE DEVICE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a semiconductor device and a method in which no large voltage 'dip' is generated in an internal power supply node and no long recovery time is required even though an active circuit starts its operation while a voltage adjusted voltage is supplied to the active circuit through the node. SOLUTION: A circuit 400 to be used in the device includes a voltage adjuster circuit 402 which provides an internal power supply voltage Vcc-int at an internal power supply node 406. An active circuit 404 is coupled to the node 406. If the circuit 404 is activated, a current is taken out and as a result, a voltage drop is generated at the node 406. The circuit 402 requires a certain amount of time in order to put the node 406 back to the internal power supply voltage and this adversely affects the performance of the circuit 404. In order to reduce such an adverse effect, a supplying circuit 416 is provided to couple the node 406 to an external power supply voltage when the circuit 404 is activated at a first time.