Silicon-Controlled Rectifier For Electrostatic Discharge Protection Solutions With Minimal Snapback And Reduced Overshoot Voltage

Keywords

direct-connected; ESD; overshoot; SCR; stacking

Abstract

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structure constructed by the stacking of multiple anode gate'cathode gate directly connected silicon-controlled rectifiers (DCSCRs), fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS technology is reported in this letter. Two embedded diodes in the DCSCR dictate the turn-ON mechanism and hence give rise to a trigger voltage equal to twice the diode's turn-ON voltage. This approach enables the DCSCR to offer a diode-like transmission line pulsing IV characteristic with a minimal snapback and a SCR-like high-ESD robustness. At 25 °C, DCSCR has an acceptable nanoampere-level leakage current. Besides, it is verified that the DCSCR can significantly reduce overshoot voltage when stressed by very-fast-rising pulses. As such, an ESD clamp constructed by stacking a selected number of DCSCRs can offer a flexible trigger/holding voltage and is suitable for low and medium voltage ESD protection applications.

Publication Date

5-1-2015

Publication Title

IEEE Electron Device Letters

Volume

36

Issue

5

Number of Pages

424-426

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2015.2413844

Socpus ID

84928715129 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84928715129

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