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. 04, 2000
Filed:
Mar. 02, 1998
Applicant:
Inventor:
Richard T Ida, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Assignee:
Motorola, Inc., Schaumburg, IL (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
361 56 ; 361111 ;
Abstract
A protection circuit (20) protects a semiconductor device (10) from damage due to electrostatic charge transferred to a terminal (19) of the semiconductor device. A voltage follower (26) senses a voltage (V.sub.CHARGE) developed by the electrostatic charge to produce a follower voltage. A conduction path (30) is enabled with the follower voltage to discharge the electrostatic charge from the terminal before the voltage rises to a magnitude that damages the integrated circuit.