Bidirectional Semiconductor Device for Protection against Electrostatic Discharges

An integrated circuit produced in a given CMOS technology, the integrated circuit comprising:

• a protective semiconductor device having a doublet including two floating-gate thyristors coupled in parallel and head-to-tail, each thyristor having a pair of electrode regions, the two thyristors respectively having two separate gates and a common semiconductor gate region having a dimension, measured parallel to a spacing direction of the electrodes of each pair, greater than a minimum dimension defined by design rules of the technology.

A method of making an integrated circuit, the method comprising:

• designing a protective semiconductor device having a doublet including two floating-gate thyristors coupled in parallel and head-to-tail, each thyristor having two electrode regions, the two thyristors respectively having two separate gates and a common semiconductor gate region, a product of current gains of two transistors of each thyristor being greater than 1, wherein each electrode region of at least one of the thyristors has a dimension, measured perpendicularly to a spacing direction of the two electrodes of the corresponding pair, which is adjusted so as to impart to the thyristor an intrinsic triggering voltage less than a breakdown voltage of a transistor fabricated in a selected CMOS technology;
• and
• fabricating an integrated circuit in a semiconductor body, the integrated circuit including the protective semiconductor device as designed and a plurality of transistors fabricated in the selected CMOS technology.