US Patent Issued to Advanced Micro Devices on Jan. 20 for "Apparatus, system, and method for reducing the footprints of circuits that protect against the antenna effect and electrostatic discharge" (Colorado, Massachusetts Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,531,409, issued on Jan. 20, was assigned to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.).

"Apparatus, system, and method for reducing the footprints of circuits that protect against the antenna effect and electrostatic discharge" was invented by Stephen Dussinger (Ft. Collins, Colo.), William E. Laub Jr. (Boxborough, Mass.) and John Wuu (Ft. Collins, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An exemplary apparatus includes a through-silicon via (TSV) and circuit that protects against the antenna effect and electrostatic discharge (ESD). The circuit can include a plurality of transistors whose gates are each electrically coupled to a sign...