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:
Nov. 13, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 12, 2011
Akram A. Salman, Plano, TX (US);
Stephen G. Beebe, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Shuqing Cao, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Akram A. Salman, Plano, TX (US);
Stephen G. Beebe, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Shuqing Cao, Palo Alto, CA (US);
GlobalFoundries Inc., Cayman Islands, KY;
Abstract
An electrostatic discharge protection device and methodology are provided for protecting semiconductor devices against electrostatic discharge events by temporarily forming during normal (non-ESD) operation two more inversion layers () in a first well region () that is disposed between anode and cathode regions () in response to one or more bias voltages (GG) that are close to Vdd in order to reduce leakage current and capacitance during normal operation (non-ESD) condition. During an electrostatic discharge event, the bias voltages can be removed (e.g., decoupled or set to 0V) to eliminate the inversion layers, thereby forming a semiconductor resistor for shunting the ESD current.