US Patent Issued to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Dec. 30 for "Semiconductor devices having an electro-static discharge protection structure" (Taiwanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,512,422, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

"Semiconductor devices having an electro-static discharge protection structure" was invented by Yi-Feng Chang (Xinbei, Taiwan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A semiconductor device includes a substrate and a metallization layer. The substrate has an active region that includes opposite first and second edges. The metallization layer is disposed above the substrate, and includes a pair of metal lines and a metal plate. The metal lines extend from an outer periphery of the active region into the active region and toward the second edge...