Patent ID: 11876090
Assignee: CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
Field: Semiconductors (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. An intelligent battery sensor (IBS) comprising:
a communication circuit; and
an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit comprising:
a p-channel field-effect transistor (PFET) clamp coupled to a pin to be protected from positive and negative ESD events, the PFET clamp including a plurality of PFETs in a first DN-well,
an n-channel field-effect transistors (NFET) clamp coupled between ground and the pin through the PFET clamp, the NFET clamp including a plurality of NFETs coupled in series, and
a bias network for biasing a voltage of the DN-well to substantially equal a voltage on the pin when the voltage on the pin is greater than ground potential, and equal to ground potential when the voltage of the pin is less than ground potential,
wherein the plurality of PFETs are coupled in parallel between the pin and the NFET clamp, each of the plurality of PFETs coupled to the pin through one of a plurality of ballast resistors.