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:
Aug. 23, 1994
Filed:
Sep. 23, 1991
Ralph G Whitten, San Jose, CA (US);
Ta-Pen Guo, Cupertino, CA (US);
Amr Mohsen, Saratoga, CA (US);
Alan E Comer, San Jose, CA (US);
Aptix Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A first passive ESD protection device for an electronic component in a microcircuit includes a fuse element shunting the component to be protected and includes a passive programming path from the outside of the microcircuit to the fuse element. A second passive ESD protection device is deactivatable and reactivatable and includes a first fuse element shunted by a second fuse element in series with a first antifuse element. Shunting the second fuse element with a third fuse element in series with a second antifuse element permits a second deactivation and reactivation to be performed. Additional deactivation/reactivation cycles may be permitted by providing additional series combinations of fuse elements and antifuse elements shunting the preceding fuse element. Combinations of the passive protection device and dual elements comprise ESD protection schemes which may be deactivated and activated multiple times.