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:
May. 14, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 17, 1999
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Hsinchu, TW;
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H 9/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H 9/00 ;
Abstract
An apparatus of preventing integrated circuits from interfering by electrostatic-discharge (ESD), applied in an internal circuit and an input pad, both coupled with a first power line and a second power line, comprises a voltage clamp circuit and a voltage bias circuit. The voltage clamp circuit, with a transistor, connects to the second power line for clamping potential level through the voltage clamp circuit. The voltage bias circuit, with at least one diode coupled in series, connects to the voltage clamp circuit and the first power line for biasing the voltage clamp circuit to the second power line.