Overvoltage protection
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics (Alps) SAS
InventorMichel Bouche
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An embodiment of the present disclosure relates to an electronic circuit including a first switch coupling a first node of the circuit to an input/output terminal of the circuit; a second switch coupling the first node to a second node of application of a fixed potential; and a high-pass filter having an input coupled to the terminal and an output coupled to a control terminal of the second switch.
Claims20
An electronic circuit comprising:
- a plurality of first switches, each first switch configured to couple a respective first node of the electronic circuit to a first input/output terminal of the electronic circuit;
- a plurality of second switches, each second switch configured to couple the respective first node to a second node of application of a fixed voltage potential;
- a high-pass filter having an input coupled to the first input/output terminal, and having an output coupled to a respective control terminal of each second switch;
- and
- a second input/output terminal coupled to the input of the high-pass filter, and coupled to the second node by a circuit of protection against electrostatic discharges.
A method of protecting an electronic circuit against an overvoltage, the electronic circuit comprising a plurality of first switches, each first switch configured to couple a respective first node of the electronic circuit to a first input/output terminal of the electronic circuit, a plurality of second switches, each second switch configured to couple the respective first node to a second node of application of a fixed voltage potential, a high-pass filter having an input coupled to the first input/output terminal and an output coupled to a respective control terminal of each second switch, and a second input/output terminal coupled to the input of the high-pass filter, and coupled to the second node by a circuit of protection against electrostatic discharges, the method comprising:
- receiving the overvoltage by the high-pass filter;
- setting, by the high-pass filter, each second switch to an on-state based on the receiving the overvoltage;
- and
- providing a Zener diode function by the circuit of protection against electrostatic discharges.
A method of testing an electronic circuit, the electronic circuit comprising a plurality of first switches, each first switch configured to couple a respective first node of the electronic circuit to a first input/output terminal of the electronic circuit, a plurality of second switches, each second switch configured to couple the respective first node to a second node of application of a fixed voltage potential, a high-pass filter having an input coupled to the first input/output terminal and an output coupled to a respective control terminal of each second switch, and a second input/output terminal coupled to the input of the high-pass filter, and coupled to the second node by a circuit of protection against electrostatic discharges, the method comprising:
- applying and/or receiving a signal to and/or from, respectively, the first input/output terminal;
- and
- providing a Zener diode function by the circuit of protection against electrostatic discharges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.