it is achieved that the esd current flows at a distance from the surface via a current path situated deeper within the semiconductor body so that surface effects are at least substantially precluded in addition the zone 38 will advantageously bring about a reduction of current concentration at the edges of zones resulting in an increase of the quality of the protection structure a further modification of the protection structure as shown in fig2 is shown in section in fig7 in this drawing only the input and the trigger diode transistor of the protection are shown unlike previous examples the input contact 17 is arranged at a distance from the protection and separated therefrom by an n type surface zone 40 which is connected to the buried zone 14 via a deep n type zone 41 said zone 40 forms a series resistance between the contact 17 and the protection by virtue of this input configuration the robustness of the protection is advantageously increased in that the u201c current crowding u201d phenomenon is suppressed along with the problem of local breakdown in the protection fig8 is a sectional view of another embodiment wherein u201c current crowding u201d is at least substantially suppressed the drawing mainly shows the transistor 26 27 28 and the trigger diode 21 in order to obtain a resistance in this embodiment the connection between the metal contact 30 and the poly layer 33 is not formed above the emitter 28 as is the case in the preceding examples but outside the emitter diffusion enabling the poly resistance of the layer 33 to be effectively used of course such a resistance can also be realized in the transistor 18 19 11 which is not.