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. 07, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 08, 2003
Shane C. Hollmer, San Jose, CA (US);
Shane C. Hollmer, San Jose, CA (US);
Emosyn America, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
An N-channel transistor protection circuit and method are disclosed that prevent gated diode breakdown in N-channel transistors that have a high voltage on their drain. The disclosed N-channel protection circuit may be switched in a high voltage mode between a high voltage level and a lower rail voltage. A high voltage conversion circuit prevents gated diode breakdown in N-channel transistors by dividing the high voltage across two N-channel transistors, MXUand MXU, such that no transistor exceeds the breakdown voltage, V. An intermediate voltage drives the top N-channel transistor, MXU. The top N-channel transistor, MXU, is gated with a voltage level that is at least one N-channel threshold, V, below the high voltage level, V, using the intermediate voltage level, nprot. The drain voltage of MXUwill be at least one N-channel threshold, V, lower than the input voltage level, nprot, and the drain voltage Vof the bottom N-channel transistor, MXU, is limited to less than the breakdown voltage, V.