SEMICODUCTOR DEVICE HAVING ELECTRO STATIC DISCHARGE DETECTION CIRCUIT

摘要

A semiconductor device having an ESD(Electro Static Discharge) sensing circuit is provided to protect an ESD protection circuit due to an ESD current by applying a control circuit for grounding or blocking the ESD protection circuit. An input/output pad(IO) is provided, and a higher voltage than a VDD of a semiconductor device is added thereto. An ESD protection circuit(100) protects an internal circuit of the semiconductor device from the ESD at the input/output pad. The ESD protection circuit includes a protection circuit(120), an ESD sensing circuit(140) for sensing the ESD current of the VDD line, and a control circuit(160). The protection circuit discharges the ESD current to the VDD line and a VSS line. The control circuit controls the protection circuit to connect or block the VSS line by responding to the output voltage of the ESD sensing circuit.