Integrated circuit, has protection element, where amounts of discharge current pulses of polarities discharged via protection and semiconductor element are larger/smaller than amounts discharged via other semiconductor element, respectively

摘要

The circuit (100) has two non-linear semiconductor elements (105, 106) e.g. diode and bipolar transistor, and an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection element (104) e.g. bipolar transistor, MOSFET and silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), arranged between two connections (102, 103) e.g. connecting pad. Amounts of discharge current pulses of two polarities (107, 108) discharged via the protection element and one of the semiconductor elements are larger and smaller than amounts of pulses discharged via the other semiconductor element, respectively. An independent claim is also included for a method for discharging discharge current pulses between two connections of an integrated circuit.