Micronas Gmbh

Martin Czech

Ulrich Theus

Michael Albert

Eckart Wagner

Erwe Reinhard

Jürgen Kessel

A method and circuit arrangement is provided for controlling switching transistors of an integrated circuit, with a bridge circuit and with a control unit, which is designed and/or has a program so that the control unit is designed as a measuring device and measures a bridge voltage of the bridge circuit, outputs an adjusting signal for adjusting a component of a bridge circuit, and outputs a control signal for activating the switching transistors. When the bridge circuit) has a branch with a resistor network and a transistor connected in series, and the control unit is designed and/or has a program so that the adjusting signal for adjusting a resistance value of the resistor network is switchable as the component dependent on the bridge voltage.

Method and circuit arrangement for controlling switching transistors of an integrated circuit

A circuit with protection against electrostatic destruction comprises at least two sections (A, B) composed of a first and second section (A, B). Each of the sections (A, B) has its own working voltage system with a fundamental voltage (USS or USS) and a supply voltage (UDD or UDD), and at least one connection (SC) between an information terminal (SA) of the first section (A) and an information terminal (SB) of the second section (B) to transfer information between the first section (A) and the second section (B). The connection (SC) has a transistor circuit with at least one transistor (X) of the first section (A), a resistance (R), and a first transistor (E) of the second section (B), wherein the first transistor (X) is connected between the fundamental voltage (USS) of the first section (A) and the resistance (R), and the first transistor (E) of the second section (B) is connected between the resistance (R) and the supply voltage (UDD) of the second section (B).

Circuit with protection against electrostatic destruction

An integrated circuit includes at least two circuit components formed on a common semiconductor substrate. Each circuit component has a self-contained supply voltage system. Coupling circuits couple the supply voltage systems for the at least two circuit components. Each coupling circuit includes at least one transistor having a base formed by or within the substrate itself; more specifically, by or within a region of the substrate contiguous with collector doping zones and emitter doping zones of the transistor. The resistance between the transistor base and the potentials of the two supply voltage systems coupled by each of the coupling circuits is the intrinsic resistance of the substrate between the region forming the base and one of each contact doping zone conductively connected to the collector or emitter through a metallization applied to the substrate. To obtain an identical coupling behavior for the transistor in both directions, the collector and emitter of the transistor are preferably symmetrical, i.e., a transistor with a double emitter. The coupling circuit may be implemented with a single transistor, the dimensions of which are fixed by the desired volume resistivity. Greater flexibility of design with respect to accommodating the coupling circuit on one substrate surface without an increased area requirement is provided by employing multiple transistors as the coupling circuit. These transistors may be distributed independently of each other on the substrate surface.

Integrated circuit

The invention relates to a circuit arrangement with two or more circuit sections, which cooperate through a data transfer device. The invention solves the problem of double area expenditure for two memory devices for each receiver, in that the data bus itself takes over the role of one of these memory devices, namely that of the memory device functioning as master. For this it is only necessary to integrate a single memory device on the data bus, which takes over the role of the no longer needed memory device for each data receiver. By saving the memory device associated with each receiver, the semiconductor chip area needed for communication buses can be optimized and the master memory device of the prior art may be replaced by the bus capacitance.

Apparatus using bus capacitance to perform data storage during data transfer across the bus

To protect against electrostatic discharges in monolithic integrated circuits in CMOS technology, a lateral thyristor structure is presented which has a much lower firing voltage compared to conventional thyristor structures.

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Freiburg, Germany

Martin Czech