Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection

Details Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection

1997-09-29

1999-06-29

Mis, David

Electronic digital logic circuitry

Signal sensitivity or transmission integrity

Bus or line termination

361 56, H02H 904, H01L 2362

Patent

active

059173360

ABSTRACT:
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) circuit (700) provides robust protection to an input/output driver circuit (10). The discharge path is provided by a bipolar transistor (202). The bipolar device is triggered by a combination of an n-type MOSFET (702), a string of diodes (200), and a biasing circuit (704). The trigger point of the MOSFET is programmable by varying the number of individual diodes in the string of diodes. The relatively high transconductance of the n-type MOSFET allows the use of a smaller ESD circuit for a given degree of protection.

REFERENCES:
patent: 5530612 (1996-06-01), Maloney
patent: 5539327 (1996-07-01), Shigehara et al.
patent: 5565790 (1996-10-01), Lee
Naresh Tandan, "ESD Trigger Circuit", EOS/ESD Symposium, Section 3.3.1-3.3.5 (1994).
Voldman et al., "Analysis of Snubber-Clamped Diode-String Mixed Voltage Interface ESD Protection Network for Advanced Microprocessors", EOS/ESD Symposium, pp. 43-61 (1995).
Amerasekera, et al., "Substrate Triggering and Salicide Effects on ESD Performance and Protection Circuit Design in Deep Submicron CMOS Processes", IEDM, pp. 547-550 (1995).
Ramaswamy, et al., "EOS/ESD Analysis of High-Density Logic Chips", EOS/ESD Symposium, pp. 285-290 (1996).

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Circuit for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1378544