Patent ID: 11916062
Assignee: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. A microelectronic device, comprising:
a protected line;
a reference line separate from the protected line;
an active field effect transistor (FET) having a drain coupled to the protected line, a source coupled to the reference line, and a gate;
an electrostatic discharge (ESD) trigger circuit coupled to the protected line, and to the gate of the active FET, wherein the ESD trigger circuit is configured to turn on the active FET when a first overvoltage transient occurs on the protected line, the first overvoltage transient being characteristic of an ESD event;
a gate control circuit coupled to the gate of the active FET, the gate control circuit being configured to turn off the active FET when a DEACTIVATE signal is provided to the gate control circuit, and being configured to enable operation of the active FET when a low state is provided to the gate control circuit; and
a transient detection circuit having an ESD detector, a high bandwidth detector, and an output driver, wherein:
the ESD detector is coupled to the protected line and to the output driver, the ESD detector being configured to provide a CLEAR signal to the output driver when the first overvoltage transient occurs on the protected line;
the high bandwidth detector is coupled to the protected line and to the output driver, the high bandwidth detector being configured to provide an ENABLE signal to the output driver when the first overvoltage transient occurs on the protected line or when a second overvoltage transient occurs on the protected line, the second overvoltage transient being characteristic of a voltage surge event; and
the output driver is configured to provide the low state to the gate control circuit when the ENABLE signal is provided from the high bandwidth detector and the CLEAR signal is provided from the ESD detector.