Patent ID: 7009820

Claim:
A disk drive comprising: (a) a disk; (b) a head actuated over the disk, the head comprising a first head terminal and a second head terminal; and (c) an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit comprising a first depletion mode metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) and a second depletion mode MOSFET, each depletion mode MOSFET comprising a gate terminal and a first and second transistor terminals, wherein: the first transistor terminal of the first depletion mode MOSFET is coupled to the first head terminal; the second transistor terminal of the first depletion mode MOSFET is coupled to ground; the first transistor terminal of the second depletion mode MOSFET is coupled to the second head terminal; the second transistor terminal of the second depletion mode MOSFET is coupled to ground; and the gate terminals are coupled to ground through a resistive element to turn on the first and second depletion mode MOSFETs while the disk drive is powered down, thereby grounding the first and second bead terminals to protect the head from ESD.