Punchthrough transient voltage suppressor for low-voltage electronics

Author

King, Ya-Chin ; Yu, Bin ; Pohlman, Jeff ; Hu, Chenming

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

16

Issue

7

fYear

1995

fDate

7/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

303

Lastpage

305

Abstract

Transient voltage suppressors for electronic circuits with power supply voltage of 3.3 V or lower are urgently needed but unavailable due to excessive leakage of low-voltage reversed p-n diodes. We analyzed several candidate device structures by using two-dimensional device simulation. Adopting the punchthrough mechanism in an n/sup +/p/sup +/p/sup -/n/sup +/ structure rather than the traditional avalanche mechanism in a p/sup +/n/sup +/ structure, we can achieve low standoff voltage with excellent performances in low leakage current, low capacitance, and low clamping voltage. The new device appears to be satisfactory for protecting future electronic systems with power supply voltage at least down to 1.5 V.<>

Keywords

leakage currents; overvoltage protection; semiconductor diodes; surge protection; transients; 1.5 to 3.3 V; low capacitance; low clamping voltage; low leakage current; low-voltage electronics; n/sup +/p/sup +/p/sup -/n/sup +/ structure; punchthrough mechanism; punchthrough transient voltage suppressor; two-dimensional device simulation; Analytical models; Capacitance; Circuit simulation; Clamps; Diodes; Electronic circuits; Leakage current; Low voltage; Power supplies; Power system protection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.388715

Filename

388715