Electro-static discharge protection circuit

Abstract

This disclosure provides an ESD protection circuit coupled to a first and a second terminals of a differential-pair circuit. The ESD protection circuit includes: an ESD sensing unit coupled to the first and the second terminals and sensing electrical changes at the first and the second terminals to generate a first trigger signal; and a first discharging unit coupled to the ESD sensing unit and turning on a first discharging path according to the first trigger signal.

Claims

1. An electro-static discharge (ESD) protection circuit coupled to a first terminal and a second terminal of a differential-pair circuit, the ESD protection circuit comprising: an ESD sensing unit being coupled to the first and the second terminals, and sensing electrical changes at the first and the second terminals to generate a first trigger signal; and a first discharging unit being coupled to the ESD sensing unit, and turning on a first discharging path according to the first trigger signal.

2. The ESD protection circuit of claim 1, wherein the ESD sensing unit includes: a common mode voltage unit generating a common mode voltage according to the electrical changes at the first and the second terminals; and a comparator comparing the common mode voltage and a reference voltage and thereby generating the first trigger signal.

3. The ESD protection circuit of claim 2, wherein the common mode voltage unit is a voltage divider including two resistors connected in series.

4. The ESD protection circuit of claim 2, wherein the ESD sensing unit further includes a second comparator configured to compare the common mode voltage with a second reference voltage and thereby generate a second trigger signal.

5. The ESD protection circuit of claim 1, wherein the first discharging unit is coupled to the first and the second terminals, and the first and the second terminals are short-circuited when the first discharging unit turns on the first discharging path according to the first trigger signal.

6. The ESD protection circuit of claim 1, further comprising: a second discharging unit being coupled to the first terminal and a grounding terminal, and turning on a second discharging path to ground the first terminal when the second discharging unit receives a second trigger signal that is generated by the ESD sensing unit sensing the electrical changes at the first and the second terminals, wherein the first discharging unit is coupled to the second terminal and the grounding terminal, and grounds the second terminal by turning on the first discharging path according to the first trigger signal.

7. The ESD protection circuit of claim 6, further comprising: a third discharging unit being coupled to the first and the second terminals, and turning on a third discharging path to make the first and the second terminals short-circuited when the third discharging unit receives a third trigger signal that is generated by the ESD sensing unit sensing the electrical changes at the first and the second terminals.

8. The ESD protection circuit of claim 7, wherein the first trigger signal, the second trigger signal and the third trigger signal are one and the same.

9. The ESD protection circuit of claim 7, wherein the first trigger signal, the second trigger signal and the third trigger signal are different signals.

10. The ESD protection circuit of claim 1, wherein the first discharging unit is selected from at least one of the follows: at least one metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor; at least one bipolar junction transistor; and at least one silicon-controlled rectifier.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the ESD protection circuit according to the present invention.

[0016] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the embodiment of FIG. 1, in which the discharging unit is composed of transistors.

[0017] FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of another embodiment of the ESD sensing unit.

[0018] FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the ESD protection circuit according to the present invention.

[0019] FIG. 5 illustrates a further embodiment of the ESD protection circuit according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0020] The following description is written by referring to terms acknowledged in this industrial field. If any term is defined in this specification, such term should be explained accordingly.

[0021] FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of the electro-static discharge (ESD) protection circuit according to the present invention. The ESD protection circuit 100 is coupled to a first terminal 11 and a second terminal 12. The first terminal 11 and the second terminal are input terminals of a differential signal, and are usually connected to pads of an integrated circuit. The signals at the first terminal 11 and the second terminal are usually complementary, and pertain to the said differential signal. The differential-pair circuit 10 processes the differential signal come from the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12, and then outputs the processed signal to a load circuit (not shown in the figure).

[0022] As shown in FIG. 1, the ESD protection circuit 100 comprises an ESD sensing unit 120, a discharging unit 141, a discharging unit 142 and a discharging unit 143. In other embodiments, the amount and setting of the discharging unit(s) are not limited to the embodiment of FIG. 1; in other words, there may be only one or two discharging unit(s). The ESD sensing unit 120 includes two input terminals which are connected to the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12 respectively and sensing electrical changes at the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12. The said electrical changes could be changes of voltage, current or charges. When the electrical change(s) at the first terminal 11 and/or the second terminal 12 is/are violent, the ESD sensing unit 120 generates trigger signals 121, 122 and 123 to enable the discharging unit 141, the discharging unit 142 and the discharging unit 143, so that the ESD energy can be discharged through one or more suitable discharging path(s) immediately.

[0023] In this embodiment, the discharging unit 141 is coupled to the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12, and receives the trigger signal 121 from the ESD sensing unit 120; the discharging unit 142 is coupled to the first terminal 11 and a grounding terminal, and receives the trigger signal 122 from the ESD sensing unit 120; the discharging unit 143 is coupled to the second terminal 12 and a grounding terminal, and receives the trigger signal 123 from the ESD sensing unit 120.

[0024] FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of the embodiment of FIG. 1. In this embodiment, each of the discharging units 141, 142, 143 is composed of at least a transistor, and the gate of each transistor is coupled to the ESD sensing unit 120. When the electrical change(s) at the first terminal 11 and/or the second terminal 12 is/are sufficient to make the ESD sensing unit 120 generate the trigger signals, the discharging unit 141, the discharging unit 142 and the discharging unit 143 are turned on and three discharging paths are established. The discharging path established by the discharging unit 141 is operable to make the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12 short-circuited (i.e., the path between the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12 is short-circuited); the discharging path established by the discharging unit 142 is operable to ground the first terminal 11; the discharging path established by the discharging unit 143 is operable to ground the second terminal 12; therefore, the ESD energy can be discharged through these three discharging paths quickly.

[0025] In this embodiment, the ESD sensing unit 120 is realized with a common mode voltage unit 125 and a comparator 126, while the common mode voltage unit 125 is realized with a voltage divider composed of resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 connected in series. In a preferred embodiment, the resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 have the same resistance, the common mode voltage V.sub.com is the average of the voltages at the first terminal 11 and the second terminal 12. In other embodiments, the resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 might have different resistance in consideration of circuit design requirements or setup of specific voltage level. When the common mode voltage V.sub.com is greater than the reference voltage V.sub.ref, the comparator 126 generates a trigger signal. In this embodiment, the trigger signals for the discharging unit 141, the discharging unit 142 and the discharging unit 143 are one and the same. In other embodiments, the ESD sensing unit 120 may include a plurality of comparators operable to generate trigger signals in accordance with different thresholds, so as to allow the discharging unit 141, the discharging unit 142 and the discharging unit 143 to turn on their respective discharging paths according to their respectively received different trigger signals. It should be noted that each of the said discharging units is realized with at least one of the follows: at least one metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET); at least one bipolar junction transistor (BJT); at least one silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR); and other electronic elements that can be turned on quickly.

[0026] When the power source voltage V.sub.DD of the differential-pair circuit 10 is 3.3 volt, the reference voltage V.sub.ref could be set at 1.65 volt (i.e., V.sub.DD/2). The comparator 126 compares the common mode voltage V.sub.com with the reference voltage V.sub.ref. When the common mode voltage V.sub.com is greater than the reference voltage V.sub.ref, an ESD phenomenon occurring at the first terminal 11 and/or the second terminal 12 is suggested; meanwhile, the comparator 126 issues a trigger signal. In this embodiment, the comparator 126 is an operational amplifier; the differential-pair circuit 10 is composed of four transistors Q.sub.1, Q.sub.2, Q.sub.3, Q.sub.4 and a current source I as typical design of analog internal circuits.

[0027] FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of another embodiment of the ESD sensing unit. The ESD sensing unit 220 includes comparators 126a and 126b which receive different reference voltages V.sub.ref1 and V.sub.ref2 respectively. In this configuration, when the common mode voltage V.sub.com exceeds the voltage range defined by the reference voltages V.sub.ref1 and V.sub.ref2, the ESD sensing unit 220 issues a trigger signal. In one embodiment, the reference voltage V.sub.ref1 could be 1.15 volt (i.e., (V.sub.DD/2)−0.5V) and the reference voltage V.sub.ref2 could be 2.15 volt (i.e., (V.sub.DD/2)+0.5V). The NOR gate of the ESD sensing unit 220 is well known and the detail is omitted.

[0028] FIG. 4 shows a circuit diagram of another embodiment of the ESD protection circuit according to the present invention. When an ESD phenomenon of a differential-mode occurs at the first terminal 21, the common mode voltage V.sub.com from the common mode voltage unit 225 is greater than the reference voltage V.sub.ref; accordingly, the comparator 226 generates a trigger signal 221 to turn on the FET of the discharging unit 241 and thereby establish a discharging path making the first terminal 21 and the second terminal 22 short-circuited (i.e., making the path between the first terminal 21 and the second terminal 22 short-circuited). The discharging path for transient current caused by ESD energy is illustrated by the dash line with arrows in the figure.

[0029] FIG. 5 shows a circuit diagram of a further embodiment of the ESD protection circuit according to the present invention. In this embodiment, each of the discharging unit 34 and the discharging unit 36 is realized with at least a transistor. The source and drain terminals of the discharging unit 34 are coupled to the first terminal 31 and a grounding terminal respectively. The source and drain terminals of the discharging unit 36 are coupled to the second terminal 32 and the grounding terminal respectively. When an ESD phenomenon of a common-mode occurs at the first terminal 31 and the second terminal 32, the common mode voltage V.sub.com is greater than the reference voltage V.sub.ref, and the gate of the discharging unit 34 and the gate of the discharging unit 36 receive trigger signals to turn on their paths between their drain terminals and their source terminals, so that two discharging paths are established as illustrated by the dash lines with arrows in the figure. The discharging paths ground the first terminal 31 and the second terminal 32.

[0030] The aforementioned descriptions represent merely the preferred embodiments of the present invention, without any intention to limit the scope of the present invention thereto. Various equivalent changes, alterations, or modifications based on the claims of present invention are all consequently viewed as being embraced by the scope of the present invention.