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:
Oct. 22, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 01, 1999
Yoichi Mimuro, Chiba, JP;
Seiko Instruments Inc., , JP;
Abstract
A Vss-side off transistor is often used in an electrostatic breakdown prevention circuit having an NMOS transistor. In such a circuit, the state of connection of the transistor ensures that off-leak current has a significant influence on the standby current, which is particularly noticeable when the circuit is used in a semiconductor device running at low power consumption. In such case, since the threshold voltage of a MOS transistor forming the semiconductor device is made as low as possible, the sub-threshold leak current in the electrostatic breakdown prevention circuit is large. To prevent this, the NMOS transistor forming the electrostatic breakdown prevention circuit is formed with a P type gate electrode for the purpose of increasing its threshold voltage by about 1.1 V as compared with that if the gate electrode of the NMOS transistor were to have an N type gate electrode.