Patent ID: 8441770

Claim:
A circuit to attenuate the voltage spikes caused by a parasitic inductance of a high current interconnection to a power distribution rail, in correspondence of switching transitions of a first power device of a switching apparatus, wherein said first power device is coupled to said high current interconnection to said power distribution rail, comprising: at least one transistor directly coupled to said high current interconnection of said power distribution rail and to a low current interconnection to said power distribution rail, wherein at least one of said transistors turns on when said voltage spikes reach the threshold of said transistor; whereby at least a portion of the excess energy stored in said parasitic inductance is transferred by at least one of said transistors to at least one node of said switching apparatus in correspondence of the occurrence of said voltage spikes; whereby no portion of said excess energy stored in said parasitic inductance is dissipated in said first power device, and whereby at least one of said transistors limits the instantaneous voltage across said first power device.