ESD protection design for mixed-voltage I/O circuit with substrate-triggered technique in sub-quarter-micron CMOS process

A substrate-triggered technique is proposed to improve ESD protection efficiency of the stacked-NMOS device in the mixed-voltage I/O circuit. The substrate-triggered technique, can further lower the trigger voltage of the stacked-NMOS device to ensure effective ESD protection for the mixed-voltage I/O circuit. The proposed ESD protection circuit with the substrate-triggered technique for 2.5 V/3.3 V tolerant mixed-voltage I/O circuit has been fabricated and verified in a 0.25-μm salicided CMOS process. Experimental results have confirmed that the HBM ESD robustness of the mixed-voltage I/O circuit can be increased ∼65% by this substrate-triggered design.