Patent ID: 7372679

Claim:
An Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection circuit, comprising: a control circuit coupled to receive an ESD signal and a deactivation signal and adapted to assert a control signal in response to a magnitude of the ESD signal exceeding a magnitude of the deactivation signal and further adapted to deassert the control signal in response to the deactivation signal exceeding a threshold level; an adjustment circuit coupled to receive the control signal and adapted to increase the threshold level in response to the asserted control signal; a clamp circuit adapted to conduct the ESD signal in response to the asserted control signal, wherein the control circuit includes an inverter, the inverter comprising a pull-up transistor coupled to receive the deactivation signal at a control terminal and coupled to receive the ESD signal at a first conduction terminal and adapted to be conductive in response to the magnitude of the ESD signal exceeding the magnitude of the deactivation signal; and a pull-down transistor pair coupled to receive the deactivation signal at a common control terminal, wherein the pull-down transistor pair is rendered conductive in response to the magnitude of the deactivation signal exceeding the threshold level.