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US 2016/0079227 A1Published application
Esd protection circuit with plural avalanche diodes
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsHenry L. Edwards, Akram A. Salman, Lili Yu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit (FIG. 3C) is disclosed. The circuit includes a bipolar transistor (304) having a base, collector, and emitter. Each of a plurality of diodes (308-316) has a first terminal coupled to the base and a second terminal coupled to the collector. The collector is connected to a first terminal (V+). The emitter is connected to a first power supply terminal (V−).
Claims28
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) device, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a bipolar transistor formed on the substrate, the bipolar transistor having:
- an emitter terminal formed on an emitter region of the substrate;
- a base terminal formed on a first base region and a second base region of the substrate, the first base region positioned adjacent to the emitter region, the second base region separated from the first base region;
- and
- a collector terminal formed on a collector region positioned adjacent to the first base region to form a first avalanche diode, and the collector region interdigitating with the second base region to form a second avalanche diode.
3 more elements
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a substrate having a top surface;
- a circuit formed on the substrate, and having a protected terminal;
- and
- an electrostatic discharge (ESD) bipolar transistor formed on the substrate and coupled to the protected terminal of the circuit, the ESD transistor having:
- an emitter terminal formed on an emitter region of the top surface;
- a base terminal formed on a first base region and a second base region of the top surface, the first base region positioned adjacent to the emitter region, the second base region separated from the first base region;
- and
- a collector terminal formed on a collector region positioned adjacent to the first base region to form a first avalanche diode, and the collector region interdigitating with the second base region to form a second avalanche diode.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.