Patents by Inventor William M. Lye

William M. Lye 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).

  • Patent number: 7985644
    Abstract: Transistor structures for relatively even current balancing within a device and methods for fabricating the same are disclosed. These devices can be used in relatively compact MOSFET Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection structures, such as in snapback devices. One embodiment utilizes a salisided exclusion layer for segmentation of the source and/or drain diffusion areas, while the others utilize poly for segmentation of the source and/or drain area. Also, diffusion is used generically herein and, for example, includes implants. These techniques provide relatively good ESD tolerance while consuming a relatively small amount of area, and provide significant area and parasitic capacitance reduction over the state of the art without sacrificing ESD performance. These techniques are also applicable to current balancing within relatively high current devices, such as drivers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2011
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Graeme B. Boyd, William M. Lye, Xun Cheng
  • Patent number: 7646063
    Abstract: Transistor structures for relatively even current balancing within a device and methods for fabricating the same are disclosed. These devices can be used in relatively compact MOSFET Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection structures, such as in snapback devices. One embodiment utilizes a salisided exclusion layer for segmentation of the source and/or drain diffusion areas, while the others utilize poly for segmentation of the source and/or drain area. Also, diffusion is used generically herein and, for example, includes implants. These techniques provide relatively good ESD tolerance while consuming a relatively small amount of area, and provide significant area and parasitic capacitance reduction over the state of the art without sacrificing ESD performance. These techniques are also applicable to current balancing within relatively high current devices, such as drivers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2010
    Assignee: PMC-Sierra, Inc.
    Inventors: Graeme B. Boyd, William M. Lye, Xun Cheng