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. 18, 2010
Filed:
Feb. 07, 2007
Applicants:
Graeme B. Boyd, North Vancouver, CA;
Xun Cheng, Chengdu, CN;
Bijit Patel, Allen, TX (US);
Inventors:
Assignee:
PMC-Sierra, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H 9/00 (2006.01); H02H 1/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A negative electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection network or circuit is described. The circuit can provide protection against a negative-going ESD transient. One embodiment, along with standard positive ESD protection networks, can discharge ESD currents in both polarities and is able to tolerate a positive/negative voltage that is higher than the maximum voltage allowed for the given fabrication process. It can be used to protect an I/O pin that can be exposed to a relatively wide signal swing range.