Patent ID: 8680621

Claim:
An integrated circuit comprising electro-static discharge, ESD, protection circuitry arranged to provide ESD protection to an external terminal of the integrated circuit, the ESD protection circuitry comprising: a thyristor circuit comprising a first bipolar switching device operably coupled to the external terminal and a second bipolar switching device operably coupled to another external terminal, a collector of the first bipolar switching device being coupled to a base of the second bipolar switching device and a base of the first bipolar switching device being coupled to a collector of the second bipolar switching device; and a third bipolar switching device having a base terminal operably coupled to the thyristor circuit and having a threshold voltage for triggering the thyristor circuit to provide a current path from the external terminal to the another external terminal, the threshold voltage being independently configurable of the thyristor circuit; wherein the first and second switching devices, when in use, exhibiting a bidirectional snapback characteristic and a snapback voltage associated therewith.