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:
Jul. 18, 2000
Filed:
Feb. 18, 1998
Jon R Williamson, San Jose, CA (US);
Edward Nowak, Pleasanton, CA (US);
Emmanuel de Muizon, Fremont, CA (US);
VLSI Technology, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Protection circuits and methods of protecting a semiconductor device are provided. According to one aspect, the present invention provides a protection circuit adapted to be coupled to a ground connection, pad and power bus of a semiconductor device, the protection circuit includes electrically coupled first and second transistors adapted to be coupled between a pad and a ground connection, the first and second transistors having a common diffusion region coupling the first transistor with the second transistor in a cascode configuration, the first transistor having a gate adapted to be coupled to a power bus to receive a bias voltage, the power bus being substantially electrically isolated from the pad.