LOCAL ESD POWER RAIL CLAMP WHICH IMPLEMENTS SWITCHABLE I/O DECOUPLING CAPACITANCE FUNCTION

摘要

Methods and circuits are disclosed for providing distributed ESD protection switchable between a capacitive decoupling state and an ESD protection state. The invention provides electronic circuitry with a selectable capacitive decoupling path and an ESD shunting path responsive to the detection of the presence or absence of an electrostatic discharge event. Circuits of the invention include one or more control circuits (12), electrostatic discharge devices (10), and control nodes (18) operably coupled to responsively switch the circuit from a decoupling state to an electrostatic discharge state.