Other

Semiconductor Components Industries, LLC

Alfredo Ochoa

Francine Y Robb

Jeffrey Pearse

James R Washburn

William E Gandy, Jr

George W Templeton

A semiconductor device for coupling a transient voltage at an input node to a reference node, the device having a bipolar transistor adapted to couple its collector to an input node and its emitter to the reference node and a driver device adapted to be coupled between the input node and the base terminal of the transistor such that the driver device is responsive to a transient voltage at the input node to turn on the transistor, thereby shunting the transient voltage to the reference node. Preferably, the input node is coupled to a high speed data transmission line that operates below 5 v and the reference node is coupled to ground and the transistor is an NPN transistor. The driver may preferably be a gate-drain connected MOS transistor with its gate-drain terminal coupled to the collector terminal of the transistor and its source terminal coupled to the base terminal of the transistor. Alternatively, the driver may be a light emitting diode (LED) or any other diode with a different material (band-gap) and die size than the LED, connected to the bipolar transistor to create a low voltage clamping device.

Electrostatic discharge protection device for high speed transmission lines

A method is provided for suppressing a transient signal (V ) using a single semiconductor die ( ). The method comprises the step of loading the transient signal with first and second junctions ( ) formed adjacent to a first doped region ( ) of the semiconductor die. The first junction breaks down to generate a current while the second junction forward biases to route the current across an undepleted portion ( ) of the first doped region and through the second junction.

Transient suppressing device and method

Growing community of inventors

Cave Creek, AZ, United States of America

Alfredo Ochoa