Patent ID: 7889470

Claim:
An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit, comprising: a discharging component, coupled between an input/output pad and a first power line of an IC; a first diode coupled between the input/output pad and an ESD bus in a forward direction toward the ESD bus; a second diode coupled between the ESD bus and a second power line of the IC in a forward direction toward the ESD bus; and an ESD detection circuit, comprising: a capacitor and a resistor formed in series and coupled between the first power line and the second power line; and a triggering component, having a positive power end coupled to the ESD bus and a negative power end coupled to the first power line; an input of the triggering component being coupled to a node between the capacitor and the resistor; wherein the discharging component is turned off during normal power operations, and triggered by a output of the triggering component in an ESD event.