US 12,456,859 B2
Electrostatic discharge circuit for multi-voltage rail thin-gate output driver
Satish Krishnamoorthy, San Diego, CA (US); Young Uk Yim, San Diego, CA (US); and Ashwin Sethuram, San Clemente, CA (US)
Assigned to QUALCOMM INCORPORATED, San Diego, CA (US)
Filed by QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US)
Filed on May 4, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/312,462.
Application 18/312,462 is a continuation of application No. 17/357,239, filed on Jun. 24, 2021, granted, now 11,689,014.
Prior Publication US 2023/0275424 A1, Aug. 31, 2023
Int. Cl. H02H 9/02 (2006.01); H10D 89/60 (2025.01)
CPC H02H 9/02 (2013.01) [H10D 89/611 (2025.01); H10D 89/921 (2025.01)] 39 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An electrostatic discharge protection circuit in an interface circuit, comprising:
a first diode coupled between a first power source of an integrated circuit device and an input/output pad of the integrated circuit device, wherein the first power source supplies a driver circuit that comprises a first transistor that has a gate coupled to an output of a pre-driver circuit that receives power from a second power source different from the first power source;
a resistive element having a first terminal coupled to the input/output pad and to a terminal of the first diode; and
a second diode coupled between the second power source of the integrated circuit device and a second terminal of the resistive element, wherein the second power source supplies one or more core circuits of the integrated circuit device,
wherein the second terminal of the resistive element is further coupled to an output of the driver circuit.