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US 11,081,881 B2Granted
Full swing positive to negative MOSFET supply clamp for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics International N.V.
InventorsDivya Agarwal, Radhakrishnan Sithanandam
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is provided in using a supply clamp circuit including a trigger actuated MOSFET device. Triggering of the MOSFET device is made in response to detection of either a positive ESD event or a negative ESD event.
Claims16
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit, comprising:
- a first power supply line;
- a second power supply line;
- a MOSFET switching circuit having a first conduction terminal connected to the first power supply line, a second conduction terminal connected to the second power supply line and a gate control terminal;
- and
- a trigger circuit, comprising:
- a first ESD detection circuit configured to generate, in response to detection of a positive ESD event at one or more of the first and second power supply lines, a positive trigger signal;
- a second ESD detection circuit configured to generate, in response to detection of a negative ESD event at one or more of the first and second power supply lines, a negative trigger signal;
- and
- a pass circuit configured to pass the positive and negative trigger signals for application to the gate terminal of the MOSFET switching circuit, wherein said pass circuit comprises:
- a first pass circuit comprising a first n-channel MOSFET and a first p-channel MOSFET connected to each other in parallel with drain terminals connected to receive the positive trigger signal and source terminals connected to generate a trigger control signal for application to the gate terminal of the MOSFET switching circuit;
- and
- a second pass circuit comprising a second n-channel MOSFET and a second p-channel MOSFET connected to each other in parallel with drain terminals connected to receive the negative trigger signal and source terminals connected to generate the trigger control signal for application to the gate terminal of the MOSFET switching circuit.
9 more elements
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit, comprising:
- a first power supply line;
- a second power supply line;
- a switching circuit having a first conduction terminal connected to the first power supply line, a second conduction terminal connected to the second power supply line and a switch control terminal;
- and
- a trigger circuit, comprising:
- a first ESD detection circuit configured to generate, in response to detection of a positive ESD event at one or more of the first and second power supply lines, a positive trigger signal;
- and
- a second ESD detection circuit configured to generate, in response to detection of a negative ESD event at one or more of the first and second power supply lines, a negative trigger signal;
- a first transistor that is gate biased to operate as a pass transistor for passing the positive trigger signal from the first ESD detection circuit to the switch control terminal of the switching circuit;
- and
- a second transistor that is gate biased to operate as a pass transistor for passing the negative trigger signal from the second ESD detection circuit to the switch control terminal of the switching circuit;
- wherein the switching circuit is actuated in response to each of the positive trigger signal and the negative trigger signal.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.