Rc-triggered bracing circuit
AssigneeNXP B.V.
InventorGijs Jan de RAAD
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A protection circuit including a low-leakage electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit and at least one bracing circuit, the at least one bracing circuit including an RC input stage connected between a pad and ground, a driver transistor configured to drive a plurality of components of the at least one bracing circuit, a series transistor on an input line configured to act as a high impedance element during an ESD event, and a mini-clamp configured to short the input line to ground to protect a circuit to be protected during an ESD event.
Claims15
A protection circuit comprising:
- a low-leakage electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit and at least one bracing circuit, the at least one bracing circuit including:
- an RC input stage connected between a pad and ground;
- a driver transistor configured to drive a plurality of components of the at least one bracing circuit;
- a series transistor on an input line configured to act as a high impedance element during an ESD event;
- and
- a mini-clamp configured to short the input line to ground to protect a circuit to be protected during an ESD event.
An ESD protection circuit, comprising:
- a low-leakage electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit and a bracing circuit, the bracing circuit including:
- an extended drain (ED) transistor connected to the low-leakage ESD protection circuit and a pad;
- an RC input stage connected between the extended drain transistor and ground;
- a driver transistor configured to drive a plurality of components of the bracing circuit;
- a mini-clamp configured to short the input line to ground to protect a circuit to be protected during an ESD event;
- and
- a gate clamp configured to pull down on a gate of the ED transistor to configure it in a high impedance state.
A method of protecting a circuit from an ESD pulse using a bracing circuit, comprising:
- sinking an ESD current pulse using a low-leakage ESD protection device;
- activating an RC trigger circuit using an operating voltage of the low-leakage protection device;
- triggering a driver transistor to activate elements of the bracing circuit;
- activating a series transistor to a high impedance state;
- and
- turning on a mini-clamp transistor to connect an input line to ground and protect the circuit to be protected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.