Abstract
A diode-triggered silicon controlled rectifier (DTSCR) is being developed as an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device for low voltage applications. However, DTSCR leaks high current during normal operation due to the Darlington effect of the triggering-assist diode string. In this study, two types of diode string triggered SCRs are designed for low leakage consideration; the modified diode string and composite polysilicon diode string triggered SCRs (MDTSCR & PDTSCR). Compared with the conventional DTSCR (CDTSCR), the MDTSCR has a much lower substrate leakage current with a relatively large silicon cost, and the PDTSCR has a much lower substrate leakage current with similar area and shows good leakage performance at a high temperature. Other DTSCR ESD properties are also investigated, especially regarding their layout, triggering voltage and failure current.
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Project partially supported by the Zhejiang Provincial Nature Science Fund of China (Nos. Y107055 and Y1080546), and the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC)
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Du, Xy., Dong, Sr., Han, Y. et al. Low-leakage diode-triggered silicon controlled rectifier for electrostatic discharge protection in 0.18-μm CMOS process. J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. A 10, 1060–1066 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A0820545
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.A0820545
Key words
- Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection
- Diode-triggered silicon controlled rectifier (DTSCR)
- Leakage current