The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 01, 1992
Filed:
Jul. 09, 1991
Stanley D Brotherton, Sussex, GB;
U.S. Philips Corporation, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A thin-film transistor circuit (10) has a main thin-film transistor (Trl) and an input gate protection device (11) formed by first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2) and (Tr3) connected in series and to the gate electrode (1) of the main thin-film transistor (Tr1). The gates (4 and 7) and one of the main electrodes (5 and 9) of each of the first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2 and Tr3) are connected. The other main electrodes (6 and 8) of the first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2 and Tr3) are connected together so that only one of the first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr3 and Tr3) conducts when a voltage above a threshold voltage is applied to the gate electrode (1) of the main thin-film transistor (Tr1). The first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2 and Tr3) have channel regions (20) of a length (L) selected for causing breakdown of the other one of the first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2 and Tr3) when a given voltage greater than the threshold voltage is applied to the gate electrode (1) of the main thin-film transistor (Tr1), thereby rendering both the first and second subsidiary thin-film transistors (Tr2 and Tr3) conducting.