An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit includes a field oxide device in a substrate, wherein the field oxide device is coupled between an input/output (I/O) pad and a first terminal. The field oxide device includes a drain end and a source end having a first type of dopant. The field oxide device includes a field oxide structure between the drain end and the source end. The field oxide structure has a top surface co-planar with a top surface of a substrate. A first doped region having a second type of dopant is adjacent to the drain end. A second doped region having the second type of dopant is adjacent to the source end. The field oxide structure is in a well and the source end and the drain end are separate from the well. The substrate has the second type of dopant and is around the field oxide structure.

A transient voltage suppressing (TVS) device formed in an epitaxial layer of a first conductivity type supported on a semiconductor substrate. The TVS device further comprises a plurality of contact trenches opened and extended to a lower part of the epitaxial layer filled with a doped polysilicon layer of a second conductivity type wherein the trenches are further surrounded by a heavy dopant region of the second conductivity type. The TVS device further includes a metal contact layer disposed on a top surface of the epitaxial layer electrically connected to a Vcc electrode wherein the metal contact layer further directly contacting the doped polysilicon layer and the heavy dopant region of the second conductivity type.

Diffusion regions having the same conductivity type are arranged on a side of a second wiring and a side of a third wiring, respectively under a first wiring connected to a signal terminal. Diffusion regions are separated in a whole part or one part of a range in a Y direction. That is, under first wiring, diffusion regions are only formed in parts opposed to diffusion regions formed under the second wiring and third wiring connected to a power supply terminal or a ground terminal, and a diffusion region is not formed in a central part in an X direction. Therefore, terminal capacity of the signal terminal can be reduced without causing ESD resistance to be reduced, in an ESD protection circuit with the signal terminal.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device is disclosed including at least an NPN transistor and a PNP transistor coupled between a first node and a second node, wherein the ESD protection device may be configured to sink current from the first node to the second node in response to an ESD event. The transistors may be coupled such that a collector of the NPN may be coupled to the first node. A collector of the PNP may be coupled to the second node. A base of the NPN may be coupled to the emitter of the PNP. An emitter of the NPN may be coupled to a base of the PNP.

Methods to forming trigger-voltage tunable cascode transistors for an ESD protection circuit in FinFET IC devices and resulting devices. Embodiments include providing a substrate including adjacent first-type well areas, over the substrate, each pair of first-type well areas separated by a second-type well area; providing one or more junction areas in each first and second type well area, each junction area being a first type or a second type; forming fins, spaced from each other, perpendicular to and over the first and second type junction areas; and forming junction-type devices by forming electrical connections between the first and second type junction areas in the first-type well areas and the substrate, wherein a first-stage junction-type device in a first-type well area includes stacked first and second type junction areas, and wherein the first-stage junction-type device is adjacent a second-type well area including first and second type junction areas.

A semiconductor device may include the following elements: a first n-type region; a second n-type region; a p-type region, which directly contacts each of the first n-type region and the second n-type region; a first p-type portion, which directly contacts the first n-type region; a first n-type portion, which directly contacts each of the first n-type region and the p-type region; a first electrode, which is electrically connected to each of the first p-type portion and the first n-type portion; a second p-type portion, which directly contacts the second n-type region; a second n-type portion, which directly contacts each of the second n-type region and the p-type region; and a second electrode, which is electrically connected to each of the second p-type portion and the second n-type portion.

A robust electrostatic (ESD) protection device is provided. In one example, the ESD protection device is configured to accommodate three nodes. When used with a differential signal device, the first and second nodes may be coupled with the differential signal device's BP and BM signal lines, respectively, and the third node may be coupled to a voltage source. This allows for a single ESD protection device to be used to protect the signal lines of the differential signal device, thus providing significant substrate area savings as compared to the conventional means of using three dual-node ESD protection devices to accomplish substantially the same protection mechanism. Moreover, the ESD protection device may be structurally designed to handle high voltage ESD events, as required by the FlexRay standard.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) unit is described, including a first device, and a second device coupled to the first device in parallel. In an ESD event, the first device is turned on before the second device is turned on. The second device may be turned on by the turned-on first device to form an ESD path in the ESD event.

A lateral p-n diode in the center of and surrounded by a vertical Silicon-Controlled Rectifier (SCR) forms an Electro-Static-Discharge (ESD) protection structure. The lateral p-n diode has a cross-shaped P+ diode tap with four rectangles of N+ diode regions in each corner of the cross. A P-well under the P+ diode tap is also an anode of a vertical PNPN SCR that has a deep N-well in a P-substrate. The deep N-well surrounds the lateral diode. Triggering MOS transistors are formed just beyond the four ends of the cross shaped P+ diode tap. Each triggering MOS transistor has N+ regions at the edge of the deep N-well and in the P-substrate that act as the cathode terminals. A deep P+ implant region under the N+ region at the edge of the deep N-well decreases a trigger voltage of the vertical SCR.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device includes a first trigger element and a first silicon control rectifier (SCR) element. The first trigger element has a first parasitic bipolar junction transistor (BJT) formed in a substrate. The first SCR element has a second parasitic BJT formed in the substrate. The first parasitic BJT and the second parasitic BJT has a common parasitic bipolar base, and the first parasitic BJT has a trigger voltage substantially lower than that of the second parasitic BJT.