What is this part in 556 die

Question

I ask this question, just out of curiosity. In this die of 556 IC, what are the wave-like squiggle at the four corners, and two more on the top?

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Awesome! We need more semiconductor design questions here. – Connor Wolf Mar 25 '14 at 04:18 — Connor Wolf, Mar 25 '14 at 04:18

score 10 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 24 '14 at 15:48

10

Those are high-current NPN transistors. Here, from the designer's book:

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answered Mar 24 '14 at 15:48

Spehro Pefhany

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Great! I never would have guessed that. – Arjob Mukherjee Mar 24 '14 at 16:06
Book downloads are broken, so here's a direct link: http://www.designinganalogchips.com/_count/designinganalogchips.pdf – George Mar 25 '14 at 20:36
Thanks, George, the book is excellent (and free) unless you insist on the print version. – Spehro Pefhany Mar 27 '14 at 15:37

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 24 '14 at 15:47

Those are the large transistors required to drive the output pins: two for each of the totem-pole main outputs and one for each of the open-collector discharge pins. Those transistors need to handle on the order of 200 mA each, so they need to be much larger than the internal analog/logic transistors.

What is this part in 556 die

2 Answers2