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US 2016/0079750 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−).
Claims20
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit, comprising:
- a semiconductor controlled rectifier (SCR) having an NPN transistor and a PNP transistor;
- a first diode formed between a P-base terminal of the NPN transistor and an P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor, the first diode having a first avalanche threshold;
- a second diode formed between the P-base terminal of the NPN transistor and the P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor, the second diode having a second avalanche threshold;
- and
- an ESD protection terminal coupled to the P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor.
2 more elements
An integrated circuit, comprising:
- a semiconductor controlled rectifier (SCR) having an NPN transistor and a PNP transistor;
- a first diode formed between a P-base terminal of the NPN transistor and an P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor, the first diode having a first avalanche threshold;
- a second diode formed between the P-base terminal of the NPN transistor and the P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor, the second diode having a second avalanche threshold;
- and
- an operational circuit having a protected terminal coupled to the P-emitter terminal of the PNP transistor.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.