Reduced current leakage in RC ESD clamps
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsAlbert M. Chu, Mujahid Muhammad, Daryl M. Seitzer, Rohit A. Shetty
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Aspects of the invention provide an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with reduced current leakage, and a related method. In one embodiment, an ESD protection device for an integrated circuit (IC) is provided. The ESD protection device includes: a resistor-capacitor (RC) timing circuit for selectively turning on the ESD protection device during an ESD event; a trigger circuit for receiving an output of the RC timing circuit and generating a trigger pulse for driving at least one of: a first ESD clamp and a second ESD clamp; and a selection circuit for selecting one of: the trigger circuit or a charge pump for controlling the second ESD clamp.
Claims18
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device for an integrated circuit (IC), comprising:
- a resistor-capacitor (RC) timing circuit for selectively turning on the ESD protection device during an ESD event;
- a trigger circuit for receiving an output of the RC timing circuit and generating a trigger pulse for driving at least one of:
- a first ESD clamp and a second ESD clamp;
- and
- a selection circuit for selecting one of:
- the trigger circuit or a charge pump for controlling the second ESD clamp, wherein the charge pump controls the second ESD clamp in an absence of the ESD event, and wherein the trigger circuit controls the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event;
- the selection circuit including:
- a first transmission gate for connecting the trigger circuit to the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event;
- and
- a second transmission gate for disconnecting the charge pump from the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event.
An integrated circuit (IC), comprising:
- a charge pump for supplying a negative bias voltage;
- and
- a plurality of electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices for the IC, each ESD protection device comprising:
- a resistor-capacitor (RC) timing circuit for selectively turning on the ESD protection device during an ESD event;
- a trigger circuit for receiving an output of the RC timing circuit and generating a trigger pulse for driving at least one of:
- a first ESD clamp and a second ESD clamp;
- and
- a selection circuit for selecting one of:
- the trigger circuit or the charge pump for controlling the second ESD clamp, wherein the charge pump controls the second ESD clamp in an absence of the ESD event, and wherein the trigger circuit controls the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event;
- the selection circuit including:
- a first transmission gate for connecting the trigger circuit to the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event;
- and
- a second transmission gate for disconnecting the charge pump from the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event.
A method of reducing current leakage in an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device for an integrated circuit (IC), the ESD protection device including a first ESD clamp connected to an RC timing circuit and a trigger circuit, a selection circuit for selectively connecting the trigger circuit to a second ESD clamp, and a charge pump, the method comprising:
- turning off the second ESD clamp in an absence of an ESD event by connecting, by the selection circuit, the charge pump to the second ESD clamp;
- and
- turning on the second ESD clamp in response to the ESD event by disconnecting the charge pump from the second ESD clamp using the selection circuit and connecting the trigger circuit to the second ESD clamp using the selection circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.