Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC
Structure for a stacked power clamp having a BigFET gate pull-up circuit
Design structure for an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit for protecting an integrated circuit chip from an ESD event. The design structure for the ESD protection circuit includes a stack of BigFETs, a BigFET gate driver for driving the gates of the BigFETs, and a trigger for triggering the BigFET gate driver to drive the gates of the BigFETs in response to an ESD event. The BigFET gate driver includes gate pull-up circuitry for pulling up the gate of a lower one of the BigFETs. The gate pull-up circuitry is configured so as to obviate the need for a diffusion contact between the stacked BigFETs, resulting in a significant savings in terms of the chip area needed to implement the ESD protection circuit.
International Business Machines Corporation
G H H
G06F H01L H01L
inventional inventional additional
Robert J. Junjun
Gauthier, Jr. Li