ESD buses for whole-chip ESD protection

A novel whole-chip ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection design with multiple ESD buses has been proposed to solve the ESD protection issue in the CMOS IC which has more separated power pins. The ESD current in the CMOS IC is diverted into the ESD buses, therefore the ESD current is conducted by the ESD buses away from the internal circuits and quickly discharged through the ESD protection devices. By using the ESD buses, the CMOS IC with separated power pins can be safely protected against the ESD damage which is located in the internal circuits