Electrical stress protection apparatus and method of manufacture

Abstract

In various embodiments, circuits and semiconductor devices and structures and methods to manufacture these structures and devices are disclosed. In one embodiment, a bidirectional polarity, voltage transient protection device is disclosed. The voltage transient protection device may include a bipolar PNP transistor having a turn-on voltage of V BE1 , a bipolar NPN transistor having a turn-on voltage of V BE2 , and a field effect transistor (FET) having a threshold voltage of V TH , wherein a turn-on voltage V TO of the voltage transient protection device is approximately equal to the sum of V BE1 , V BE2 , and V TH , that is, V TO ≅V BE1 +V BE2 +V TH . Other embodiments are described and claimed.

1 - 140 . (canceled) 
     
     
         141 . A voltage stress protection circuit, comprising:
 a semiconductive substrate; and   a clamp circuit formed on the substrate and having first and second conductors, the clamp circuit being configured to provide a clamp voltage of about seven volts or less with respect to a voltage difference between the first and second conductors, the clamp circuit including clamping characteristics that are symmetric about a predetermined voltage, wherein the clamp circuit comprises a five-layer NPNPN structure.   
     
     
         142 . The voltage stress protection circuit of  claim 141 , wherein the clamp circuit comprises five layers of doped semiconductive material. 
     
     
         143 . The voltage stress protection circuit of  claim 141 , wherein the first conductor of the clamp circuit is capacitively isolated from the substrate via a structure having a dielectric constant of 3.9 or less.