Clamping circuit and device for eos/surge/iec
AssigneeFairchild Semiconductor Corporation
InventorTaeghyun Kang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This application discusses, among other things, protection methods and apparatus for integrated circuits. In an example, an apparatus to protect a circuit from transient electrical events can include a protection transistor configured to couple a terminal of the circuit to a reference potential during the transient events, and one or more diodes coupled in series between the terminal and a control node of the protection transistor, the one or more diodes configured to trigger the protection transistor at a predetermined voltage of the terminal. In some examples, the apparatus does not include a clamp diode coupled between the control node of the protection transistor and the reference potential.
Claims13
An apparatus to protect a circuit from transient electrical events, the apparatus comprising:
- a protection transistor configured to couple a terminal of the circuit to a reference potential during the transient events;
- one or more diodes coupled in series between the terminal and a control node of the protection transistor, the one or more diodes configured to trigger the protection transistor at a predetermined voltage of the terminal;
- wherein the apparatus does not include a clamp diode coupled between the control node of the protection transistor and the reference potential.
A protection circuit comprising:
- a plurality of protection sub-circuits coupled in parallel between a first terminal and a second terminal, the second terminal configured to couple to a reference voltage;
- and
- wherein each protection sub-circuit includes:
- a protection transistor configured to couple a terminal of the circuit to a reference potential during the transient events;
- one or more diodes coupled in series between the terminal and a control node of the protection transistor, the one or more diodes configured to trigger the protection transistor at a predetermined voltage of the terminal;
- and
- wherein each protection sub-circuit does not include a clamp diode coupled between the control node of the protection transistor and the second terminal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.