DISTRIBUTED ESD PROTECTION DEVICE FOR HIGH SPEED INTEGRATED CIRCUITS

摘要

A distributed electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit (210) is used in high frequency integrated circuit. A transmission line from an integrated circuit (IC) pad (212) or package pin couples a plurality of ESD elements (220-223). The ESD element (220-223), such as diodes, are distributed along the transmission line and coupled from the transmission line to ground or a power supply. The effective impedance of the transmission line and ESD elements (220-223) is defined to match the impedance of an external line. Distributed ESD protection circuit (210) provides a high frequency signal path that can be used well into the GHz frequency range and also provides effective ESD protection.