Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit
First Claim
1. An integrated circuit having a VSS power supply bus and an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) bus, comprising:
- a plurality of input/output (I/O) pads coupled to the ESD bus and the VSS power supply bus; and
a plurality of individual transistors, wherein;
each individual transistor is coupled to a corresponding I/O pad; and
the plurality of individual transistors operate in parallel in response to an ESD event on at least one of the plurality of I/O pads to provide ESD protection for the plurality of I/O pads.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An ESD protection circuit (39) coupled to each of a plurality of I/O circuits (30, 32, 36) of an integrated circuit (31) is disclosed. The ESD protection circuit includes a MOSFET transistor (40) to provide primary ESD protection on occurrence of an ESD event. In one embodiment, the control electrode of the MOSFET transistor is coupled to a first buffer circuit (42). Integrated circuit (31) includes a remote trigger circuit (37) coupled to the ESD protection circuits via a trigger bus (47). The individual ESD protection circuits operate in parallel to provide ESD protection to the I/O circuits (30, 32, and 36) upon occurrence of an ESD event.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. An integrated circuit having a VSS power supply bus and an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) bus, comprising:
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a plurality of input/output (I/O) pads coupled to the ESD bus and the VSS power supply bus; and
a plurality of individual transistors, wherein;
each individual transistor is coupled to a corresponding I/O pad; and
the plurality of individual transistors operate in parallel in response to an ESD event on at least one of the plurality of I/O pads to provide ESD protection for the plurality of I/O pads. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
a first terminal of the first resistive element is coupled to the ESD bus, a second terminal of the first resistive element is coupled to the second terminal of the remote trigger circuit and a first terminal of the first capacitive element, and a second terminal of the first capacitive element is coupled to the VSS power supply bus.
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10. The integrated circuit of claim 9, further comprising a plurality of capacitive elements, wherein each capacitive element of the plurality of capacitive elements has a first terminal coupled to the control electrode of at least one of the plurality of individual transistors and a second terminal coupled to the VSS power supply bus.
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11. The integrated circuit of claim 3, further comprising a plurality of capacitive elements, wherein each capacitive element of the plurality of capacitive elements has a first terminal coupled to the control electrode of at least one of the plurality of individual transistors and a second terminal coupled to the VSS power supply bus.
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12. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein each of the individual transistors is an N-channel MOS transistor.
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13. The integrated circuit of claim 12, wherein the N-channel MOS transistor has a corresponding gate size of at most approximately 300 microns and a corresponding channel length of at most approximately 0.6 microns.
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14. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the plurality of individual transistors provide a primary discharge path upon occurrence of the ESD event.
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15. A distributed transistor circuit for Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection having a VSS power supply bus and an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) bus, comprising:
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a plurality of input/output (I/O) circuits coupled to the ESD bus and the VSS power supply bus;
a plurality of distributed transistors, wherein;
each of the plurality of I/O circuits includes one of the plurality of distributed transistors, and each distributed transistor has a first current electrode coupled to the ESD bus, a second current electrode coupled to the VSS bus, and a control electrode; and
a trigger circuit corresponding to the plurality of distributed transistors, having a first terminal coupled to the ESD bus, and a second terminal coupled to each of the control electrodes of the distributed transistors via a trigger bus. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification