Agere Systems Inc.

Che Coi Leung

John Christopher Kriz

Dipankar Bhattacharya

Yehuda Smooha

Duane J Loeper

An ESD clamp circuit for use between separate power rails. An ESD clamp is based on a wide nMOSFET. A symmetrical circuit is designed vis-&#xe0;-vis the two power rails, with respect to ground, allowing discharge of an ESD surge in both polarities of stress. An nMOSFET device drives the gate of a large nMOSFET (e.g., having a device width between 1000 and 10,000 microns). The large power rail-to-power rail nMOSFET has its gate controlled by the output inverter stage of either ESD detection circuit connected to a respective power supply rail. The gate is switched to a common ground during normal operation of the integrated circuit.

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Bethlehem Township, PA, United States of America

Che Coi Leung