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:
Mar. 02, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 07, 2000
Ciaran J. Brennan, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Kevin A. Duncan, Milton, VT (US);
William R. Tonti, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Steven H. Voldman, South Burlington, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
In order to divert damaging currents into an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device during an ESD event, a tungsten wire resistor is incorporated into a current path connected in parallel with the ESD protection circuitry. The tungsten wire resistor has linear current-voltage (IV) characteristics at low currents, and non-linear IV characteristics at high current levels. The width and length of the resistor is chosen so that the resistor experiences significant self-heating caused by the higher currents generated by the ESD event. At a higher current level, the resistor becomes hot and its resistance increases dramatically. As a result the voltage drop across it increases thus diverting excess current into the parallel connected ESD protection circuitry. This limits the current through the resistor and thereby protects circuit elements in series with the resistor.