Title :
Active ESD shunt with transistor feedback to reduce latchup susceptibility or false triggering
Author :
Tong, Paul C F ; Chen, Wensong ; Ker, Ming Dou ; Hui, John ; Xu, Ping Ping ; Liu, Patty Z Q
Author_Institution :
Pericom Semicond. Corp., San Jose, CA, USA
Abstract :
We present an anomalous latchup failure phenomenon related to the large Nwell resistor associated with the generic RC-triggered, MOSFET-based active clamp circuit for on-chip ESD protection between VCC and VSS buses. A novel active clamp circuit with PMOS feedback technique has been proposed to reduce the IC´s susceptibility to latchup during negative current injection at neighboring I/O pads or false triggering of the RC trigger circuit due to noise on the VCC power line. The effectiveness of this new active clamp circuit is confirmed by our experiment and simulation results. Optimisation of the size of the PMOS feedback transistor is also discussed in this paper.
Keywords :
MOS integrated circuits; RC circuits; active networks; circuit feedback; circuit optimisation; MOSFET-based active clamp circuit; Nwell resistor; PMOS feedback transistor; RC trigger circuit; active ESD shunt; anomalous latchup failure phenomenon; circuit optimisation; false triggering; generic RC-triggered active clamp circuit; latchup susceptibility reduction; negative current injection; on-chip ESD protection; transistor feedback; Clamps; Electrostatic discharge; Feedback circuits; Integrated circuit noise; MOSFETs; Negative feedback; Protection; Resistors; Trigger circuits; Variable structure systems;
Conference_Titel :
Solid-State and Integrated Circuits Technology, 2004. Proceedings. 7th International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-8511-X
DOI :
10.1109/ICSICT.2004.1436633