Patent · US Expired

Versatile system for electrostatic discharge protection utilizing silicon controlled rectifier

US7060538B2 · kind B2 · utility

1Cited by
1References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateSep 28, 2004
Grant dateJun 13, 2006
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 18, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH10D89/713

Abstract

The present invention provides a system for electrostatic discharge protection in a semiconductor device, utilizing a silicon-controlled rectifier (502). The system includes the silicon controlled rectifier, which has a first p-type region (508) coupled to a voltage node (504), a first n-type region (512) having a first side adjoining the first p-type region, a second p-type region (510) having a first side adjoining a second side of the first n-type region, and a second n-type region (514) having a first side adjoining a second side of the second p-type region. A clamping structure (506) is intercoupled between the second n-type region and ground, to prevent the junction between the second p-type region and the second n-type region from retaining a forward bias. A switching structure (518) is intercoupled between the second p-type region and ground to ground the second p-type region during normal operation of the semiconductor device.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.