Patent ID: 8335064
Filing Date: 2012-12-18
Classification: H01L,H02H,H03K

Abstract:
1. An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device for protecting a semiconductor device, the ESD protection device comprising: a trigger element to monitor power on a first circuit node and provide a trigger signal indicative of whether the monitored power is representative of an incoming ESD pulse; a variable resistor coupled between the first circuit node and a second circuit node and which is arranged to selectively shunt power of the incoming ESD pulse, if any, from the first circuit node to the second circuit node and away from the semiconductor device; a gate driver circuit to provide a gate voltage, which is based on the trigger signal and a control signal, to a control terminal of the variable resistor to enable the selective shunting of power; and wherein a regulator element provides the control signal to the gate driver circuit to selectively adjust the power shunted over the variable resistor.