Patents by Inventor Steve L. Merchant

Steve L. Merchant has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20090159968
    Abstract: Double diffused MOS (DMOS) transistors feature extended drain regions to provide depletion regions which drop high drain voltages to lower voltages at the gate edges. DMOS transistors exhibit lower drain breakdown potential in the on-state than in the off-state than in the off-state due to snapback by a parasitic bipolar transistor that exists in parallel with the DMOS transistor. The instant invention is a cascoded DMOS transistor in an integrated circuit incorporating an NMOS transistor on the DMOS source node to reverse bias the parasitic emitter-base junction during on-state operation, eliminating snapback. The NMOS transistor may be integrated with the DMOS transistor by connections in the interconnect system of the integrated circuit, or the NMOS transistor and DMOS transistor may be fabricated in a common p-type well and integrated in the IC substrate. Methods of fabricating an integrated circuit with the incentive cascoded DMOS transistor are also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 19, 2007
    Publication date: June 25, 2009
    Applicant: TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED
    Inventors: Steve L. Merchant, John Lin, Sameer Pendharkar, Philip L. Hower