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. 05, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 29, 2002
Chuen-der Lien, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Ta-ke Tien, Cupertino, CA (US);
Chuen-Der Lien, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Ta-Ke Tien, Cupertino, CA (US);
Integrated Device Technology, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
Circuits are disclosed for protecting internal circuitry of a semiconductor chip from increased power supply voltages due to electrostatic discharge (EDS). One example circuit includes a trigger circuit including a transistor and a capacitor arranged in series between DC pads. The trigger circuit generates a trigger signal to a discharge circuit connected between the DC pads to shunt charge from one of the DC pads to the other. The RC delay associated with the transistor and capacitor of the trigger circuit may be designed such that the trigger circuit generates the trigger signal in response to an ESD event, but not in response to high positive spikes on one of the DC pads during normal operation.