SOFICS BVBA Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20150091056 | SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE FOR ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION - Disclosed is an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit. The ESD protection circuit may include a silicon controller rectifier (SCR) which may be triggered via at least one of its first trigger gate or second trigger gate. The ESD protection circuit may further include a highly doped region coupled to either the anode or cathode of the SCR, wherein the highly doped region may provide additional carriers to facilitate triggering of the SCR during an ESD event, whereby the SCR may be triggered more quickly. | 04-02-2015 |
20140268451 | HIGH HOLDING VOLTAGE CLAMP - An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with a high holding voltage is disclosed including at least an ESD clamp coupled to a holding voltage tuning circuit. The ESD clamp may be coupled to the holding voltage tuning circuit through a connection circuit such as a diode. The ESD clamp may be implemented by a first silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) and the holding voltage tuning circuit may be implemented as a second SCR. | 09-18-2014 |
20140159102 | HIGH HOLDING VOLTAGE ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION DEVICE - A high holding voltage (HV) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit comprises a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) device and compensation regions located within the length between the anode and cathode (LAC) of the SCR device which increase the holding voltage of the SCR device. The compensation regions may introduce negative feedback mechanisms into the SCR device which may influence the loop gain of the SCR and cause it to reach regenerative feedback at a higher holding voltage. | 06-12-2014 |
20130229736 | ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION FOR HIGH VOLTAGE DOMAINS - An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device is disclosed. The ESD protection circuit is configured to operate in high voltage domains. The ESD protection device may further include stacked NMOS or PMOS devices. The gates of the MOS devices may be driven by respective inverters. The inverters may be coupled to a voltage divider and may be triggered by respective trigger circuits. Power nodes of the inverters may be connected such that devices in the ESD protection circuit are exposed to voltages that are within their maximum voltage rating. | 09-05-2013 |
20130200493 | ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE PROTECTION DEVICE - An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device is disclosed including at least an NPN transistor and a PNP transistor coupled between a first node and a second node, wherein the ESD protection device may be configured to sink current from the first node to the second node in response to an ESD event. The transistors may be coupled such that a collector of the NPN may be coupled to the first node. A collector of the PNP may be coupled to the second node. A base of the NPN may be coupled to the emitter of the PNP. An emitter of the NPN may be coupled to a base of the PNP. | 08-08-2013 |
20130163128 | HIGH HOLDING VOLTAGE, MIXED-VOLTAGE DOMAIN ELECTROSTATIC DISCHARGE CLAMP - An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit is disclosed including at least a clamping device, a switching device, and a voltage limiter. The ESD protection circuit may include devices of different voltage domains. The switching device may be in series with the clamping device to block at least a portion of a voltage from dropping across the clamping device. The switching device may sustain higher maximum operating voltages than the clamping device. | 06-27-2013 |
20120200964 | DIODE CHAIN WITH GUARD-BAND - The present invention provides an ESD protection device having at least one diode in a well of first conductivity type formed in a substrate of second conductivity type. The circuit further includes a guard-band of the first conductivity surrounding at least a portion of the diode, thus forming an NPN transistor between the diode cathode, the substrate and the guard-band. | 08-09-2012 |
20110204415 | HIGH HOLDING VOLTAGE DEVICE - A high holding voltage (HV) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit comprises a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) device and compensation regions located within the length between the anode and cathode (LAC) of the SCR device which increase the holding voltage of the SCR device. The compensation regions may introduce negative feedback mechanisms into the SCR device which may influence the loop gain of the SCR and cause it to reach regenerative feedback at a higher holding voltage. | 08-25-2011 |