Patent ID: 7948726

Claim:
An electronic device ( 100 ), comprising: an electronic component ( 106 ) having a signal input conductor ( 302 ); and an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit ( 200 ) that includes a spark gap ( 204 ) in series with a high pass quarter wave transformer ( 208 ), the ESD protection circuit ( 200 ) being adapted to discharge an ESD pulse from the signal input conductor ( 302 ) to a ground plane ( 304 ) via the spark gap ( 204 ) and/or the high pass quarter wave transformer ( 208 ), the spark gap ( 204 ) including at least one spark gap pad ( 306 ) that is adapted to allow a spark to discharge the ESD pulse from the signal input conductor ( 302 ) to the ground plane ( 304 ) when the ESD pulse reaches a voltage threshold, the at least one spark gap pad ( 306 ) comprising a generally triangular portion of the ground plane ( 304 ), and wherein a vertex of the at least one spark gap pad ( 306 ) is oriented to point in the general direction of the signal input conductor ( 302 ).