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:
Nov. 25, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 05, 2001
Kazuhiko Okawa, Chino, JP;
Seiko Epson Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A semiconductor device is provided with an electrostatic protection circuit that causes rapid breakdown of a Zener diode immediately after a static charge is applied, to discharge the static charge by a high-gain thyristor with good response characteristics, and that has a small surface area. When a static charge is applied, a Zener diode breaks down, which acts as a trigger to turn on a thyristor formed of an NPN bipolar transistor and a PNP bipolar transistor. The PNP bipolar transistor is formed of p-type, n-type, and p-type impurity diffusion regions formed in the thickness direction of the substrate and the Zener diode is formed of n-type and p-type impurity diffusion regions. An n-type impurity diffusion region is provided adjacent to a surface-layer p-type impurity diffusion region, and these p-type and n-type impurity diffusion regions are connected to a signal terminal through a silicide layer formed on the surfaces thereof.