Self-healing electrostatic discharge power clamp

A method of operating a timing circuit of an electrostatic discharge protection circuit, the method comprising:

• applying a programming current to a first electronic fuse coupled in series with a first capacitor element of a capacitor of the timing circuit;
• and
• applying a non-programming current to a second electronic fuse coupled in series with a second capacitor element of the capacitor of the timing circuit,
• wherein the timing circuit further includes a resistor coupled in series with the first capacitor element and with the second capacitor element, the timing circuit is formed in association with a chip, and the resistor is bypassed with a current path from a positive power supply rail to the first electronic fuse and the second electronic fuse, when the chip and the timing circuit are initially powered, to provide the programming current and the non-programming current.

An electrostatic discharge protection circuit comprising:

• a timing circuit including a resistor coupled with a positive power supply rail and a capacitor that is coupled with the resistor at a node, the capacitor including a plurality of parallelly arranged capacitor elements;
• a field effect transistor coupled between the positive power supply rail and the node, the field effect transistor directly coupled in parallel with the resistor;
• a power clamp device coupled with the timing circuit at the node;
• and
• a plurality of electronic fuses each coupled with a respective one of the capacitor elements.