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:
Feb. 21, 2012
Filed:
Feb. 09, 2010
Weibiao Zhang, Plano, TX (US);
Weibiao Zhang, Plano, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
A voltage protection circuit that has a protection transistor coupled between a voltage supply pin of an integrated circuit and a voltage output terminal of the integrated circuit. A biasing circuit is coupled to a control node of the protection transistor and configured to cause the protection transistor to turn on to form a low impedance path between the voltage supply pin and the voltage output terminal when a positive supply voltage is coupled to the voltage supply terminal and to cause the protection transistor to turn off when a negative supply voltage is coupled to the voltage supply terminal. An electro-static discharge (ESD) protection circuit may also be connected between the voltage supply pin and a reference node that is configured to conduct a negative static discharge current for period of time, and to not conduct a negative current continuously.