Apparatus for electrostatic discharge protection and noise suppression in circuits

An integrated circuit (IC) assembly, comprising:

• a support substrate having a support ground rail, the support ground rail comprising a plurality of segments that are physically separated from each other;
• an IC package substrate disposed on the support substrate, the IC package substrate including a package ground rail of segments that are physically separated from each other and each segment of the package ground rail being electrically coupled to a corresponding support ground rail segment by a corresponding first connection;
• and
• an IC die disposed on the IC package substrate, the IC die including an IC ground rail having a plurality of segments, each segment of the IC ground rail being coupled to another segment of the IC ground rail by one or more diodes, and each segment of the IC ground rail being coupled to a corresponding segment of the package ground rail by a corresponding second connection;
• wherein the plurality of support ground rail segments are not connected by a common ground rail.

An integrated circuit (IC) assembly, comprising:

• a support substrate having a support ground rail;
• an IC package substrate disposed on the support substrate, the IC package substrate including a package ground rail;
• an IC die disposed on the IC package substrate, the IC die including,
• an IC ground rail;
• and
• a plurality of circuit blocks, each having a corresponding ground node directly connected to the package ground rail, and wherein at least one ground node is not directly connected to the IC, ground rail.