Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Driver assisted ESD protection apparatus and method
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Application No.: US17125824Application Date: 2020-12-17
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Publication No.: US11444445B2Publication Date: 2022-09-13
- Inventor: Raj Singh Dua , Sanjay Joshi , Harry Muljono , Balkaran Gill
- Applicant: Intel Corporation
- Applicant Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Assignee: Intel Corporation
- Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Agency: Williamson & Wyatt, P.C.
- Priority: IN202041024525 20200611
- Main IPC: H02H3/22
- IPC: H02H3/22 ; H02H3/08

Abstract:
Analog Front End (AFE) driver or transmitter is used for ESD protection of an input-output (IO) pin, thus reducing ESD diode count and subsequently lowering the pad capacitance to achieve high performance in IO circuits like double data rate (DDR) IO, PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), etc. The channel of active devices that constitute AFE driver are used to connect an IO pad to discharge the ESD current to ground, thus providing an alternative path to ESD current and subsequently reducing the ESD diode count. An additional p-type device (Driver Path Enabler (DPE)) is coupled between the IO pad and a gate terminal of the AFE driver. This additional p-type device triggers the channel of the AFE driver. This p-type device is controlled by an RC based structure which cuts the p-type device off during regular operations when power is ramped-up.
Public/Granted literature
- US20210391703A1 DRIVER ASSISTED ESD PROTECTION APPARATUS AND METHOD Public/Granted day:2021-12-16
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