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. 27, 2014
Filed:
Jul. 19, 2012
Philippe Deval, Lutry, CH;
Marija Fernandez, Lausanne, CH;
Patrick Besseux, Mont-sur Rolle, CH;
Microchip Technology Incorporated, Chandler, AZ (US);
Abstract
Mutual triggering of electrostatic discharge (ESD) fingers is improved by creating a base contact in each individual finger and connecting all of these base contacts in parallel. The local base contact in each ESD finger is located at a position where the base voltage significantly increases when the ESD current increases. Thus when an ESD finger is triggered its local base voltage will tend to significantly increase. Since all of the ESD finger bases are connected in parallel this local voltage increase will forward bias the base-emitter junctions of the other ESD fingers, thus triggering them all. By sharing the triggering current from the fastest ESD finger with the slower ones ensures that all ESD fingers are triggered during an ESD event.