Integrated semiconductor circuit with protective structure for protection against electrostatic discharge
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorHarald Gossner
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AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorHarald Gossner
Estimating the term…
An integrated semiconductor circuit includes a protective structure for protection against electrostatic discharge. The protective structure is disposed between a terminal pad and the integrated semiconductor circuit and is connected to at least one busbar. The protective structure includes transistors of different types with reciprocal coupling of the collector terminals and base terminals to form a thyristor structure. Integrated vertical npn switching transistors are used as protective elements, the bases of which are driven by integrated pnp driving transistors. The gain factor of the driving transistors is small enough to avoid the triggering of the parasitic thyristor with undesirable snapback of the high current characteristic curve at the sustaining voltage. A buried layer having partial regions with a higher doping concentration than regions of the buried layer outside the partial regions. The buried layer has a very low resistance, which results in homogenization of the current flow in the event of breakdown. The turn-on voltage of the active protective element is additionally set by suitable selection of the base width of the driving transistors.
In a semiconductor assembly having at least one semiconductor body, an integrated semiconductor circuit disposed in the at least one semiconductor body, an electrically conductive connecting line, at least one terminal pad connected to the integrated semiconductor circuit through the connecting line, at least one first busbar carrying a first supply potential of the integrated semiconductor circuit during operation, at least one second busbar carrying a second supply potential of the integrated semiconductor circuit during operation, and a protector for protecting the integrated semiconductor circuit against electrostatic discharge, the protector disposed between the at least one terminal pad and the integrated semiconductor circuit and connected to one of the at least one first busbar and the at least one second busbar, the protector comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.