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. 03, 2009
Filed:
Feb. 28, 2006
Toshikazu Kuroda, Tokyo, JP;
Hirokazu Hayashi, Tokyo, JP;
Yasuhiro Fukuda, Tokyo, JP;
Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An electro-static discharge protection circuit includes a thyristor mode ensuring circuit and a thyristor rectifier circuit. The thyristor mode ensuring circuit includes a capacitive element connected between a higher potential line and a lower potential line, and ensures a constant and sufficient capacity independently of the number of input/output signal bits, even when the number of input/output signal bits is a theoretical minimum, i.e. 1, so that a surge current induced by electro-static discharge (ESD) applied to an output pad is injected into the first capacitive element to charge it. Thus, by means of the current caused by the surge current, the thyristor rectifier circuit is triggered into a thyristor mode, which allows the surge current to flow to the lower potential line through the thyristor rectifier circuit, protecting circuitry against the surge current.