• ETRI Journal
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.97-106
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• 2015

In this paper, MOS-triggered silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR)-based electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuits for mobile application in 3.3 V I/O and SCR-based ESD protection circuits with floating N+/P+ diffusion regions for inverter and light-emitting diode driver applications in 20 V power clamps were designed. The breakdown voltage is induced by a grounded-gate NMOS (ggNMOS) in the MOS-triggered SCR-based ESD protection circuit for 3.3 V I/O. This lowers the breakdown voltage of the SCR by providing a trigger current to the P-well of the SCR. However, the operation resistance is increased compared to SCR, because additional diffusion regions increase the overall resistance of the protection circuit. To overcome this problem, the number of ggNMOS fingers was increased. The ESD protection circuit for the power clamp application at 20 V had a breakdown voltage of 23 V; the product of a high holding voltage by the N+/P+ floating diffusion region. The trigger voltage was improved by the partial insertion of a P-body to narrow the gap between the trigger and holding voltages. The ESD protection circuits for low- and high-voltage applications were designed using $0.18{\mu}m$ Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS technology, with $100{\mu}m$ width. Electrical characteristics and robustness are analyzed by a transmission line pulse measurement and an ESD pulse generator (ESS-6008).

• 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 IKEEE
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.361-366
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• 2016

This paper presents the ESD protection circuit with improved electrical characteristic and area efficiency. The proposed ESD protection circuit has higher holding voltage and lower trigger voltage characteristics than the 3-Stacking LVTSCR. In addition, it has only two stages and has improved Ron characteristics due to short discharge path of ESD current. We analyzed the electrical characteristics of the proposed ESD protection circuit by TCAD simulator. The proposed ESD protection circuit has a small area of about 35% compared with 3-Stacking LVTSCR, The proposed circuit is designed to have improved latch-up immunity by setting the effective base length of two NPN parasitic bipolar transistors as a variable.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.25-30
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• 2014

In this paper, SCR(Silicon Controlled Rectifier)-based ESD(Electrostatic Discharge) protection circuit for power clamp is proposed. In order to improve latch-up immunity caused by low holding voltage of the conventional SCR, it is modified by inserting n+ floating region and n-well, and extending p+ cathode region in the p-well. The resulting ESD capability of our proposed ESD protection circuit reveals a high latch-up immunity due to the high holding voltage. It is verified that electrical characteristics of proposed ESD protection circuit by Synopsys TCAD simulation tool. According to the simulation results, the holding voltage is increased from 4.61 V to 8.75 V while trigger voltage is increased form 27.3 V to 32.71 V, respectively. Compared with the conventional SCR, the proposed ESD protection circuit has the high holding voltage with the same triggering voltage characteristic.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.836-841
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• 2018

In this paper, This paper is based on the conventional ESD protection circuits SCR and LVTSCR. Also, the SCR-based ESD protection circuit, which is different from the conventional structure, is presented and tested for variations in the trigger voltage and holding voltage. Due to the insertion of additional N +, P + regions, the newly added SCR-based protection circuit have improved electrical characteristics. To discuss the electrical characteristics of the proposed circuit, Synopsys T-CAD simulation data was shown.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.150-154
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• 2019

In the design of semiconductor integrated circuits, ESD is one of the important issues related to product quality improvement and reliability. In particular, as the process progresses and the thickness of the gate oxide film decreases, ESD is recognized as an important problem of integrated circuit design. Many ESD protection circuits have been studied to solve such ESD problems. In addition, the proposed device can modify the existing SCR structure without adding external circuit to effectively protect the gate oxide of the internal circuit by low trigger voltage, and prevent the undesired latch-up phenomenon in the steady state with high holding voltage. In this paper, SCR-based novel ESD(Electro-Static Discharge) device with the high holding voltage has been proposed. The proposed device has the lower triggering voltage without an external trigger circuitry and the high holding voltage to prevent latch-up phenomenon during the normal condition. Using TCAD simulation results, not only the design factors that influence the holding voltage, but also comparison of conventional ESD protection device(ggNMOS, SCR), are explained. The proposed device was fabricated using 0.35um BCD process and was measured electrical characteristic and robustness. In the result, the proposed device has triggering voltage of 13.1V and holding voltage of 11.4V and HBM 5kV, MM 250V ESD robustness.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.10 no.2 s.19
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• pp.141-148
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• 2006

In this study, the design of advanced LVDS(Low Voltage Differential Signaling) I/O interface circuit with new structural low triggering ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) protection circuit was investigated. Due to the differential transmission technique and low signal swing range, maximum transmission data ratio of designed LVDS transmitter was simulated to 5Gbps. And Zener Triggered SCR devices to protect the ESD Phenomenon were designed. This structure reduces the trigger voltage by making the zener junction between the lateral PNP and base of lateral NPN in SCR structure. The triggering voltage was simulated to 5.8V. Finally, The high speed I/O interface circuit with the low triggered ESD protection device in one-chip was designed.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.587-588
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• 2006

This paper presents the new structural zener triggered silicon-controlled rectifier (ZTSCR) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit. The proposed ESD protection circuit has lower triggering voltage than conventional circuits. The proposed ZTSCR has the triggering voltage of 4V. In the ESD event, this proposed novel ZTSCR ESD protection device could trigger quickly and provide an effective discharging path.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.8 no.1 s.14
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• pp.136-144
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• 2004

From the AC analysis results utilizing a two dimensional device simulator, the ac equivalent-circuit modeling of the ESD protection devices is executed. It is explained that the ac equivalent circuit of the NMOS protection transistor is modeled by a rather complicated form and that, depending on the frequency range, the error can be large if it is modeled by a simple RC serial circuit. It is also shown that the ac equivalent circuit of the thyristor-type pnpn protection device can be modeled by a simple RC serial circuit. Based on the circuit simulations utilizing the extracted equivalent circuits, the effects of the parasitics in the protection device on the characteristics of LNA are examined when the LNA, which is one of the important RF circuits, is equipped with the protection device. It is explained that a large error can result in estimating the circuit characteristics if the NMOS protection transistor is modeled by a simple capacitor. It is also confirmed that the degradation of the LNA characteristics by incorporating the ESD protection device can be reduced a lot by adopting the suggested pnpn device.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.19-29
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• 2009

For two input ESD protection schemes utilizing the NMOS protection device or the lvtr_thyristor protection device, which is suitable for high-frequency CMOS ICs, we attempt an in-depth comparison study on the HBM ESD protection level in terms of lattice heating inside the protection devices and the peak voltage applied to the gate oxides in the input buffer through DC, mixed-mode transient, and AC analyses utilizing the 2-dimensional device simulator. For this purpose, we suggest a method for the equivalent circuit modeling of the input HBM test environment for the CMOS chip equipped with the input ESD protection circuit. And by executing mixed-mode simulations including up to four protection devices and analyzing the results for five different test modes, we attempt a detailed analysis on the problems which can be occurred in a real HBM test. In this procedure, we explain about the strength and weakness of the two protection schemes as an input protection circuit for high-frequency ICs, and suggest guidelines relating to the design of the protection devices.