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:
May. 04, 2010
Filed:
Feb. 20, 2007
Martin B. Mollat, McKinney, TX (US);
Tony Thanh Phan, Flower Mound, TX (US);
Martin B. Mollat, McKinney, TX (US);
Tony Thanh Phan, Flower Mound, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Formation of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device having a desired breakdown voltage (BV) is disclosed. The breakdown voltage (BV) of the device can be set, at least in part, by varying the degree to which a surface junction between two doped areas is covered. This junction can be covered in one embodiment by a dielectric material and/or a semiconductor material. Moreover, a variable breakdown voltage can be established by concurrently forming, in a single process flow, multiple diodes that have different breakdown voltages, where the diodes are also formed concurrently with circuitry that is to be protected. To generate the variable or different breakdown voltages, respective edges of isolation regions can be extended to cover more of the surface junctions of different diodes. In this manner, a first diode can have a first breakdown voltage (BV), a second diode can have a second breakdown voltage (BV), a third diode can have a third breakdown voltage (BV), etc. This can provide substantial efficiency and cost savings where there may be varying ESD requirements.