High Holding Current SCRs (HHI-SCR) for ESD protection and latch-up immune IC operation

This paper presents a novel SCR for power line and local I/O ESD protection. The HHI-SCR exhibits a dual ESD clamp characteristic: low-current high-voltage clamping and high-current low-voltage clamping. These operation modes enable latch-up immune normal operation as well as superior full chip ESD protection. The minimum latch current is controlled by device design. The HHI-SCR is demonstrated in 0.10um-CMOS and in a 0.4um-BiCMOS technology. The design is highly area efficient.