Appeal No. 2005-0176
Application No. 10/076,716
Claim 1 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it
reads as follows:
1. An electrostatic discharge protection circuit
comprising:
one or more electrostatic bus lines to direct
electrostatic discharge around internal circuitry;
a plurality of signal bonding pads to receive external
voltage signals, each signal bonding pad is coupled to an
associated electrostatic bus line via an unidirectional
conducting device; and
a charge pump for each electrostatic bus line to
precharge its associated electrostatic bus line to an
associated predetermined voltage level, wherein pre-charging
each electrostatic bus line to its predetermined voltage
level reduces transient currents on the signal bonding pads
associated with capacitive charging of the electrostatic bus
lines when the external voltage signal levels are beyond
normal supply voltage ranges.
The references relied on by the examiner are:
Smith et al. (Smith) 6,046,897 Apr. 4, 2000
Ker et al. (Ker) 6,144,542 Nov. 7, 2000
Claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 14 through 16 and 46 through 48 stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(b) as being anticipated by Smith.
Claims 10 through 13, 22, 26 through 31, 33 and 34 stand
rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as being unpatentable over
Smith in view of Ker.
2
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007