Driver assisted ESD protection device and method

The invention relates to a driver-assisted ESD protection device and method. An analog front end (AFE) driver or a transmitter is used for ESD protection of input/output (IO) pins, so that the number of ESD diodes is reduced, and then the pad capacitance is reduced, to achieve high performance in IO circuits such as dual data rate (DDR) IO, PCI fast (peripheral component interconnect fast), and the like. The channels constituting the active device of the AFE driver are used to connect the IO pads to discharge the ESD current to ground, thereby providing an alternative path for the ESD current and subsequently reducing the number of ESD diodes. An additional p-type device (Driver Path Enabler (DPE)) is coupled between the IO pad and a gate terminal of the AFE driver. This additional p-type device triggers the channel of the AFE driver. Such a p-type device is controlled by an RC-based structure that switches off the p-type device during normal operation when power increases. 本公开涉及驱动器辅助ESD保护装置和方法。模拟前端(AFE)驱动器或发