On the road to ESD safe GaAs HBT MMICs

In order to design a robust electrostatic discharge (ESD) protected microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) in GaAs HBTs, a comprehensive assessment of device vulnerability to ESD events is presented. The results include not only the intrinsic HBT´s ESD robustness performance but also its dependence on device layout, ballast resistor and process. Low capacitance loading ESD protection circuits for power and broadband amplifiers are also introduced to further improve the MMICs´ ESD robustness along with examples.