Patent ID: 8649134

Claim:
A method of protecting a circuit comprising: a) providing a selectable shunt between a first node and a second node of a circuit; b) enabling the shunt with activation circuitry in response to an electrostatic discharge (ESD) event on the first node, wherein the activation circuitry is associated with a time constant τ=τ 1 for detecting the ESD event; and c) configuring the activation circuitry such that τ=τ 2 subsequent to enabling the shunt, wherein τ 2 >τ 1 ; where the activation circuitry comprises at least one first component having a capacitance value and at least one second component having a selectable resistance value; and where τ 1 and τ 2 are each determined by a combination of the same first component with the same second component of the activation circuitry.