US Patent 7564274 Detecting excess current leakage of a CMOS device

A system (10,90), apparatus (12,30,40,50,60,70) and method (100) is disclosed for detecting excess current leakage between drain/source of a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor (36,46) within a complementary MOS (CMOS) environment. A load control (32,42) is arranged as a compliment to the MOS transistor. A comparator (34,44) is electrically connected to the load control and the MOS transistor, and produces an output signal representative of the detection of a current leakage exceeding a threshold. In response to the received output signal indicating an excess current leakage, system voltage/frequency may be adjusted to prevent damage to the CMOS environment.