a voltage regulator permits reduced current consumption by promptly and timely stopping the operation of an inrush current protection circuit immediately after the voltage regulator is started up . the voltage regulator has an output voltage detection circuit , which issues a detection signal to actuate the inrush current protection circuit when a low voltage at an output terminal is detected at the time of starting up the voltage regulator . when it is detected that the voltage at the output terminal has reached a predetermined level , the operation of the inrush current protection circuit is stopped and a power path of the output voltage detection circuit is cut off .