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. 31, 1999
Filed:
Aug. 17, 1998
James Wesley Miller, Austin, TX (US);
Cynthia Ann Torres, Austin, TX (US);
Troy L Cooper, Austin, TX (US);
Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL (US);
Abstract
A circuit (100) ensures electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection during an ESD event. The ESD circuit (100) has a current shunting device (135), a RC trigger circuit (125) and a RC delay circuit (130). The shunting device (135) is connected between two IC power supply rails, and provides the primary current path for a positive ESD event referenced from one power supply rail (V.sub.DD 105) to the other (V.sub.ss 110). The trigger circuit (125) initially activates the shunting device into a low resistance conductive state in response to an ESD event. The RC delay circuit (130) serves to maintain the shunting device in the conductive state, initially produced by the trigger circuit (125), for the remaining duration of the ESD event. A large capacitor required to achieve the delay time in this RC circuit may be eliminated by utilizing the gate-to-body capacitance in the existing shunting device (135).