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:
Apr. 20, 2004
Filed:
Mar. 16, 2001
Chuen-Der Lien, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Chau-Chin Wu, Cupertino, CA (US);
Ta-Ke Tien, Cupertino, CA (US);
Integrated Device Technology, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
An integrated circuit having an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit, a core protection circuit, a sensitive core circuit and peripheral circuitry is provided. The ESD protection circuit is coupled between the V voltage supply terminal and the V voltage supply terminal, and is capable of providing protection to the peripheral circuitry. The ESD protection circuitry requires help from core protection circuit to protect the sensitive core circuit. The core protection circuit and the sensitive core circuit are coupled in series between the V and V voltage supply terminals, with the core protection circuit coupled to the V voltage supply terminal. The sensitive core circuit has a V voltage supply terminal coupled to receive a V supply voltage from the core protection circuit. The core protection circuit is configured to cause the V supply voltage to rise slowly with respect to a rising voltage on the V voltage supply terminal during power-on of the integrated circuit. The core protection circuit is further configured to disconnect the V voltage supply terminal from the V voltage supply when a voltage on the V voltage supply terminal exceeds the nominal V supply voltage by a predetermined amount.