Characterizing diodes for RF ESD protection

Author

Guang Chen ; Haigang Feng ; Haolu Xie ; Rouying Zhan ; Qiong Wu ; Guan, X. ; Wang, Aiping ; Takasuka, K. ; Tamura, Shinji ; Zhihua Wang ; Chun Zhang

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., Illinois Inst. of Technol., Chicago, IL, USA

Volume

25

Issue

5

fYear

2004

fDate

5/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

323

Lastpage

325

Abstract

A diode string as an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection structure for RF ICs is attractive because of its reduced total parasitic capacitance. This letter reports a comprehensive RF characterization of diodes for RF ESD protection, including S-parameters, parasitic capacitance, and resistance. It is found that a two- or three-diode string may be an optimal RF ESD protection solution due to the balanced overall performance, including ESD protection level, total size, and ESD-induced parasitic effects, etc. An optimized two-diode string for 5 kV ESD protection features a 108.5 fF parasitic capacitance at 2.4 GHz, and is 3680 μm² in size. The design was implemented in a commercial 0.35-μm BiCMOS technology.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; electrostatic discharge; protection; radiofrequency integrated circuits; semiconductor diodes; 0.35 micron; 108.5 fF; 2.4 GHz; 5 kV; BiCMOS technology; ESD protection level; ESD-induced parasitic effects; RF ESD protection; RF characterization; S-parameters; diode string; electrostatic discharge; parasitic capacitance; radiofrequency integrated circuit; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Diodes; Electrostatic discharge; Integrated circuit noise; Noise figure; Noise generators; Parasitic capacitance; Power system protection; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2004.826531

Filename

1295121