A circuit and a method for automatically detecting an operating condition of an integrated circuit chip and for automatically outputting a control signal in response to automatically detecting one of at least two said operating conditions. With the preferred embodiment, FET off currents are reduced during burn-in of a CMOS integrated chip. This is done by a compact, local sensing circuit. The sensing circuit is off during the normal chip operation, and the sensing circuit is only used where needed to provide a local signal to cut down excessive FET off currents. The sensing circuit preferred embodiment is designed with an NFET bandgap device that employs a novel layout approach.