Cypress Semiconductor Corporation

Yan Yi

Ravindra Manohar Kapre

David Michael Rogers

Sungkwon Lee

Timothy John Williams

Eric N Mann

Toru Miyamae

Eric Lee Swindlehurst

Dung Ho

Ryuta Nagai

Mimi Xuefeng Zhao Qian

Boo Chin-Hua

Murtuza Lilamwala

Mimi Xuefeng Qian

Myeongseok Lee

Henry H Yuan

An electrostatic discharge protection circuit capable of clamping both positive and negative ESD events and passing signals is provided. Generally, the circuit includes a p-channel field-effect transistor (PFET) clamp coupled to a pin to be protected, the PFET clamp including a plurality of PFETs in a DN-well, an n-channel field-effect transistors (NFET) clamp coupled between ground and the pin through the PFET clamp, the NFET clamp including a plurality of NFETs coupled in series, and a bias network for biasing a voltage of the DN well to substantially equal a voltage on the pin when the voltage on the pin is greater than ground potential, and to ground potential when the pin voltage is less than ground potential. The plurality of are PFETs coupled in parallel between the pin and the NFET clamp, each of the PFETs is coupled to the pin though one of a plurality ballast resistors.

ESD protection circuit

A system and method for combining positive and negative voltage electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection into a clamp that uses cascoded circuitry, including detecting, by an electrostatic discharge protection system, a voltage pulse on an input pin of an integrated circuit (IC) controller, the IC controller coupled between a power supply node and a ground supply node; determining, by the ESD protection circuit, an ESD event on the input pin based on the voltage detected on the input pin; and/or controlling, by the ESD protection circuit during the ESD event, one or more clamps to transport the voltage pulse from the input pin of the IC controller to the power supply node.

Combined positive and negative voltage electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection clamp with cascoded circuitry

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Yan Yi