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.

Date of Patent:
Mar. 17, 2015

Filed:

Jan. 31, 2013
Applicant:

Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);

Inventors:

Cynthia Ann Torres, Austin, TX (US);

Timothy Alan Rost, Plano, TX (US);

Senthil Kumar Sundaramoorthy, Bangalore, IN;

Victor James Nuss, Crandall, TX (US);

Assignee:
Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H 9/04 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H02H 9/046 (2013.01);
Abstract

An electrostatic discharge (ESD)-triggered protection apparatus includes a first circuit and a second circuit. The first circuit includes an ESD trigger circuit to sense an ESD pulse and to generate a switching pulse responsive to the ESD pulse; a first ESD discharge device communicatively coupled to the ESD trigger circuit and responsive to the switching pulse to transfer a current generated by the ESD pulse to the ground rail; a control circuit that generates a control signal in response to the switching pulse. The second circuit includes at least one trigger cell buffer that is configured to receive the control signal and to control a second ESD discharge device such that the current generated by the ESD pulse is transferred to the ground rail.


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