Improvement on ESD robustness of lateral DMOS in high-voltage CMOS ICs by body current injection

With the waffle layout style, body-injected technique implemented by body current injection on n-channel lateral DMOS (nLDMOS) has been successfully verified in a 0.5-mum 16-V BCD process. The TLP measured results confirmed that the secondary breakdown current (I_t2) of waffle nLDMOS can be significantly increased by the body current injection with the corresponding trigger circuit design. The latchup immunity of power-rail ESD protection circuit can be further improved by the stacked configuration with multiple nLDMOS devices in HV ICs.