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:
Apr. 06, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 12, 1996
Applicant:
Inventor:
Reading Maley, Stanford, CA (US);
Assignee:
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H03K / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
326 81 ; 326 68 ; 326 83 ;
Abstract
An oxide protection circuit prevents failure of the MOS transistors in a digital device. A voltage difference at a gate oxide of a digital device does not exceed a breakdown voltage magnitude. The gate oxide protection circuit includes a plurality of transistors which turn OFF or ON when a node reaches a predetermined voltage of V.sub.refp +V.sub.t or V.sub.refn -V.sub.t, where V.sub.refp and V.sub.refn are reference applied at a gate of a PMOS or an NMOS transistor, and V.sub.t equals a threshold voltage of the MOS transistor.