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:
Sep. 27, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 24, 2003
Robert M. Steinhoff, Dallas, TX (US);
Robert M. Steinhoff, Dallas, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a system for electrostatic discharge protection in a semiconductor device, utilizing a silicon-controlled rectifier (). The system includes the silicon controlled rectifier, which has a first p-type region () coupled to a voltage node (), a first n-type region () having a first side adjoining the first p-type region, a second p-type region () having a first side adjoining a second side of the first n-type region, and a second n-type region () having a first side adjoining a second side of the second p-type region. A clamping structure () is intercoupled between the second n-type region and ground, to prevent the junction between the second p-type region and the second n-type region from retaining a forward bias. A switching structure () is intercoupled between the second p-type region and ground to ground the second p-type region during normal operation of the semiconductor device.