Layout styles to improve CDM ESD robustness of integrated circuits in 65-nm CMOS process

Due to the thinner gate oxide in the nanoscale CMOS technology and the larger chip size in the system-on-chip (SoC) IC products, the charged-device-model (CDM) electrostatic discharge (ESD) has become the major ESD events to cause failures during IC manufacturing procedures. The effective ESD protection design against CDM ESD stresses should be implemented into the chip with layout optimization to improve its ESD robustness. In this work, the impacts of different layout styles of MOS devices on CDM ESD robustness were investigated in a 65-nm CMOS process. The experimental results can provide useful information to optimize the layout of integrated circuits against CDM ESD events.