Complimentary driver circuit with shared voltage breakdown protection

摘要

This is a driver circuit 100 for use in an integrated circuit 10 for driving two complimentary signals on output terminals 104 and 106. A single device, such as a Schottky diode 170, prevents voltage breakdown resulting from an externally supplied voltage on either output terminal 104, 106. The single device, such as Schottky diode 170, provides voltage breakdown protection for an output transistor 150 and a complimentary output transistor 152. The single device can be made larger than if two devices were used so that a voltage drop across the device resulting from normal forward current conduction is minimized.