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. 06, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 05, 2008
Jinyu Yang, Plano, TX (US);
Dening Wang, McKinney, TX (US);
Gregory George Romas, Jr., McKinney, TX (US);
Jinyu Yang, Plano, TX (US);
Dening Wang, McKinney, TX (US);
Gregory George Romas, Jr., McKinney, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuits for self-protecting cascode stages are disclosed. In one example, an ESD protection circuit is described. A cascode stage is configured to selectively couple an output pad to a reference terminal. An ESD sensor may detect a change in voltage indicative of an ESD event occurring at the output pad, causing a gate drive to turn on the cascode stage to conduct ESD current in response to detection of the ESD event at the output pad. A leakage blocker is also included to prevent leakage current from the cascode stage to the gate drive while there is not an ESD event.