• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.288-292
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• 2002

We propose the new type of on-chip ESD protection method for RF applications. By using the properties of RF circuits, we can use the short-circuited stub as ESD protection device in front of the DC blocking capacitor Specially, we can use short-circuited stub as the portion of the matching circuit so to reduce the and various parameters of the transmission line. This new type ESD protection method is very different from the conventional ESD protection method. With the new type ESD protection method, we remove the parasitic capacitance of ESD protection device which degrade the performance of core circuit.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics A
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• v.29A no.11
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• pp.97-106
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• 1992

In integrated circuits, protection circuits are required to protect the internal nodes from the harmful ESD(Electrostatic discharge). This paper discusses the characteristics of the circuit components in ESD protection circuitry in order to analyze the ESD phenomina, and the design methodalogy of ESD protection circuits, using test pattern with a variation of the number of diode and transistor. The test devices are fabricated using a 0.8$\mu$m CMOS process. SPICE simulation was also carried out to relate output node voltage and measured ESD voltage. With increasing number of diodes and transistors in protection circuit, the ESD voltage also increases. The ESD voltage of the bi-directional circuit for both input and output was 100-300[V], which in higher than that of only output(uni-directional) circuit. In addition, the ESD protection circuit with the diode under the pad region was useful for the reduction of chip size and parasitic resistance. In this case, ESD voltage was improved to a value about 400[V].

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.378-384
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• 2013

We have investigated the electrical characteristics of SCR(Silicon Controlled Rectifier)-based ESD power clamp circuit with high holding voltage and dual-directional ESD protection cells for a whole-chip ESD protection. The measurement results indicate that the dimension of n/p-well and p-drift has a great effect on holding voltage (2V-5V). Also A dual-directional ESD protection circuit is designed for I/O ESD protection application. The trigger voltage and the holding voltage are measured to 5V and 3V respectively. In comparison with typical ESD protection schemes for whole-chip ESD protection, this ESD protection device can provide an effective protection for ICs against ESD pulses in the two opposite directions, so this design scheme for whole-chip ESD protection can be discharged in ESD-stress mode (PD, ND, PS, NS) as well as VDD-VSS mode. Finally, a whole-chip ESD protection can be applied to 2.5~3.3V VDD applications. The robustness of the novel ESD protection cells are measured to HBM 8kV and MM 400V.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.8
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• pp.36-46
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• 2010

In multi-GHz RF ICs and high-speed digital interfaces, ESD protection devices introduce considerable parasitic capacitance and resistance to inputs and outputs, thereby degrading the RF performance, such as input/output matching, gain, and noise figure. In this paper, the impact of ESD protection devices on the performance of RF ICs is investigated and design methodologies to minimize this impact are discussed. With RF and ESD test results, the 'RF/ESD co-design' method is discussed and compared to the conventional RF ESD protection method which focuses on minimizing the device size.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.890-894
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• 2020

In this paper, we propose an ESD protection device with improved electrical characteristics through structural changes of LVTSCR, a typical ESD protection device. The proposed ESD protection device has a higher holding voltage than the existing LVTSCR by inserting a long N+ drift region and additional P-Well and N-Well, and improves the latch-up immunity, a chronic disadvantage of a general SCR-based ESD protection device. In addition, the effective base width of parasitic BJTs was set as a design variable, and the electrical characteristics of the proposed ESD protection device were verified through Synopsys' TCAD simulation so that it can be applied to the required application by applying the N-Stack technology.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.234-239
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• 2017

In this paper, we propose an ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) protection circuit based on a new structure of SCR (Silicon Controlled Rectifier) embedded with PMOS structure. The proposed ESD protection circuit has a built-in PMOS structure and has a latch-up immunity characteristic and an improved tolerance characteristic. To verify the characteristics of the proposed ESD protection circuit and to analyze its operating characteristics, we compared and analyzed the characteristics of the existing ESD protection circuit using TCAD simulation. Simulation results show that the proposed protection ESD protection circuit has superior latch-up immunity characteristics like the existing SCR-based ESD protection device HHVSCR (High Holding Voltage SCR). Also, according to the results of the HBM (Human Body Model) maximum temperature test, the proposed ESD protection circuit has a maximum temperature value of 355K, which is about 20K lower than the existing HHVSCR 373K. In addition, the proposed ESD protection circuit with improved electrical characteristics is designed by applying N-STACK technology. As a result of the simulation, the proposed ESD protection circuit has a holding voltage characteristic of 2.5V in a single structure, and the holding voltage increased to 2-STACK 4.2V, 3-STACK 6.3V, 4-STACK 9.1V.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.24-25
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• 2008

An Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection has been a very important reliability issue in microelectronics, especially for RF (Radio Frequency) integrated circuits (ICs). This paper reviews design and analysis of on-chip ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection circuits for RF applications. Key issues in RF ESD protection, design methods, and RF ESD protection solutions are discussed.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.258-264
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• 2023

This paper proposes an LDO regulator with a built-in ESD (Electro Static Discharge) protection circuit to effectively operate and prevent destruction of the LDO (Low Drop Out) regulator according to the load current. The proposed LDO regulator can more effectively adjust the gate node voltage of the pass transistor according to the output voltage of the LDO regulator by using an additional feedback current circuit structure. In addition, it is expected to have high reliability for the ESD situation by embedding a new structure that increases the holding voltage by about 2V by reducing the current gain on the SCR loop by adding a P+ bridge to the existing ESD protection device.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.27 no.11
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• pp.686-689
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• 2014

Electrostatic discharge has been considered as a major reliability problem in the semiconductor industry. ESD reliability is an important issue for these products. Therefore, each I/O (Input/Output) PAD must be designed with a protection circuitry that creates a low impedance discharge path for ESD current. This paper presents a novel Lateral Insulated Gate Bipolar (LIGBT)-based ESD protection circuit with latch-up immunity and high robustness. The proposed circuit is fabricated by using 0.18 um BCD (bipolar-CMOS-DMOS) process. Also, TLP (transmission line pulse) I-V characteristic of proposed circuit is measured. In the result, the proposed ESD protection circuit has latch-up immunity and high robustness. These characteristics permit the proposed circuit to apply to power clamp circuit. Consequently, the proposed LIGBT-based ESD protection circuit with a latch-up immune characteristic can be applied to analog integrated circuits.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.119-123
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• 2022

This paper propose a new ESD protection device suitable for 12V class applications by adding a self-biasing structure to an ESD protection device with high holding voltage due to additional parasitic bipolar BJT. To verify the operating principle and electrical characteristics of the proposed device, current density simulation and HBM simulation were performed using Synopsys' TCAD Simulation, and the operation of the additional self-biasing structure was confirmed. As a result of the simulation, it was confirmed that the proposed ESD protection device has a higher level of holding voltage compared to the existing ESD protection device. It is expected to have high area efficiency due to the dual structure and sufficient latch-up immunity in 12V-class applications.