Development of a New pHEMT-Based Electrostatic Discharge Protection Structure

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structures in the GaAs technology are commonly constructed using enhancement-mode single-gate (SG) pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) devices. This paper develops an improved ESD protection clamp based on a novel multigate pHEMT. With approximately the same layout area, the proposed ESD protection clamp can carry an ESD current three times higher than the conventional SG pHEMT clamp under the human body model stress. Moreover, the new ESD clamp shows promising results when characterized under the charged device model stress. The parasitic capacitance of the new ESD clamp is also measured to assess its suitability for high-frequency ESD applications.