Design, Characterization And Analysis Of Electrostatic Discharge (esd) Protection Solutions In Emerging And Modern Technologies

Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a significant hazard to electronic components and systems. Based on a specific processing technology, a given circuit application requires a customized ESD consideration that includes the devices’ operating voltage, leakage current, breakdown constraints, and footprint. As new technology nodes mature every 3-5 years, design of effective ESD protection solutions has become more and more challenging due to the narrowed design window, elevated electric field and current density, as well as new failure mechanisms that are not well understood. The endeavor of this research is to develop novel, effective and robust ESD protection solutions for both emerging technologies and modern complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) technologies. The Si nanowire field-effect transistors are projected by the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors as promising next-generation CMOS devices due to their superior DC and RF performances, as well as ease of fabrication in existing Silicon processing. Aiming at proposing ESD protection solutions for nanowire based circuits, the dimension parameters, fabrication process, and layout dependency of such devices under Human Body Mode (HBM) ESD stresses are studied experimentally in company with failure analysis revealing the failure mechanism induced by ESD. The findings, including design methodologies, failure mechanism, and technology comparisons should provide practical knowhow of the development of ESD protection schemes for the nanowire based integrated circuits. Organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) are the basic elements for the emerging flexible, printable, large-area, and low-cost organic electronic circuits. Although there are plentiful studies focusing on the DC stress induced reliability degradation, the operation mechanism of OTFTs iv subject to ESD is not yet available in the literature and are urgently needed before the organic technology can be pushed into consumer market. In this work, the ESD operation mechanism of OTFT depending on gate biasing condition and dimension parameters are investigated by extensive characterization and thorough evaluation. The device degradation evolution and failure mechanism under ESD are also investigated by specially designed experiments. In addition to the exploration of ESD protection solutions in emerging technologies, efforts have also been placed in the design and analysis of a major ESD protection device, diodetriggered-silicon-controlled-rectifier (DTSCR), in modern CMOS technology (90nm bulk). On the one hand, a new type DTSCR having bi-directional conduction capability, optimized design window, high HBM robustness and low parasitic capacitance are developed utilizing the combination of a bi-directional silicon-controlled-rectifier and bi-directional diode strings. On the other hand, the HBM and Charged Device Mode (CDM) ESD robustness of DTSCRs using four typical layout topologies are compared and analyzed in terms of trigger voltage, holding voltage, failure current density, turn-on time, and overshoot voltage. The advantages and drawbacks of each layout are summarized and those offering the best overall performance are suggested at the en

Design Of Low-capacitance And High-speed Electrostatic Discharge (esd) Devices For Low-voltage Protection Applications

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is defined as the transfer of charge between bodies at different potentials. The electrostatic discharge induced integrated circuit damages occur throughout the whole life of a product from the manufacturing, testing, shipping, handing, to end user operating stages. This is particularly true as microelectronics technology continues shrink to nano-metric dimensions. The ESD related failures is a major IC reliability concern and results in a loss of millions dollars to the semiconductor industry each year. Several ESD stress models and test methods have been developed to reproduce the real world ESD discharge events and quantify the sensitivity of ESD protection structures. The basic ESD models are: Human body model (HBM), Machine model (MM), and Charged device model (CDM). To avoid or reduce the IC failure due to ESD, the on-chip ESD protection structures and schemes have been implemented to discharge ESD current and clamp overstress voltage under different ESD stress events. Because of its simple structure and good performance, the junction diode is widely used in on-chip ESD protection applications. This is particularly true for ESD protection of lowvoltage ICs where a relatively low trigger voltage for the ESD protection device is required. However, when the diode operates under the ESD stress, its current density and temperature are far beyond the normal conditions and the device is in danger of being damaged. For the design of effective ESD protection solution, the ESD robustness and low parasitic capacitance are two major concerns. The ESD robustness is usually defined after the failure current It2 and on-state resistance Ron. The transmission line pulsing (TLP) measurement is a very effective tool for evaluating the ESD robustness of a circuit or single element. This is particularly helpful in iv characterizing the effect of HBM stress where the ESD-induced damages are more likely due to thermal failures. Two types of diodes with different anode/cathode isolation technologies will be investigated for their ESD performance: one with a LOCOS (Local Oxidation of Silicon) oxide isolation called the LOCOS-bound diode, the other with a polysilicon gate isolation called the polysilicon-bound diode. We first examine the ESD performance of the LOCOS-bound diode. The effects of different diode geometries, metal connection patterns, dimensions and junction configurations on the ESD robustness and parasitic capacitance are investigated experimentally. The devices considered are N+/P-well junction LOCOS-bound diodes having different device widths, lengths and finger numbers, but the approach applies generally to the P+/N-well junction diode as well. The results provide useful insights into optimizing the diode for robust HBM ESD protection applications. Then, the current carrying and voltage clamping capabilities of LOCOS- and polysiliconbound diodes are compared and investigated based on both TCAD simulation and experimental results. Comparison of these capabilities leads to the conclusion that the polysilicon-bound diode is more suited for ESD protection applications due to its higher performance. The effects of polysilicon-bound diode’s design parameters, including the device width, anode/cathode length, finger number, poly-gate length, terminal connection and metal topology, on the ESD robustness are studied. Two figures of merits, FOM_It2 and FOM_Ron, are developed to better assess the effects of different parameters on polysilicon-bound diode’s overall ESD performance. As latest generation package styles such as mBGAs, SOTs, SC70s, and CSPs are going to the millimeter-range dimensions, they are often effectively too small for people to handle with fingers. The recent industry data indicates the charged device model (CDM) ESD event becomes v increasingly important in today’s manufacturing environment and packaging technology. This event generates highly destructive pulses with a very short rise time and very small duration. TLP has been modified to probe CDM ESD protection effectiveness. The pulse width was reduced to the range of 1-10 ns to mimic the very fast transient of the CDM pulses. Such a very fast TLP (VFTLP) testing has been used frequently for CDM ESD characterization. The overshoot voltage and turn-on time are two key considerations for designing the CDM ESD protection devices. A relatively high overshoot voltage can cause failure of the protection devices as well as the protected devices, and a relatively long turn-on time may not switch on the protection device fast enough to effectively protect the core circuit against the CDM stress. The overshoot voltage and turn-on time of an ESD protection device can be observed and extracted from the voltage versus time waveforms measured from the VFTLP testing. Transient behaviors of polysilicon-bound diodes subject to pulses generated by the VFTLP tester are characterized for fast ESD events such as the charged device model. The effects of changing devices’ dimension parameters on the transient behaviors and on the overshoot voltage and turn-on time are studied. The correlation between the diode failure and poly-gate configuration under the VFTLP stress is also investigated. Silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) is another widely used ESD device for protecting the I/O pins and power supply rails of integrated circuits. Multiple fingers are often needed to achieve optimal ESD protection performance, but the uniformity of finger triggering and current flow is always a concern for multi-finger SCR devices operating under the post-snapback region. Without a proper understanding of the finger turn-on mechanism, design and realization of robust SCRs for ESD protection applications are not possible. Two two-finger SCRs with different combinations of anode/cathode regions are considered, and their finger turn-on vi uniformities are analyzed based on the I-V characteristics obtained from the transmission line pulsing (TLP) tester. The dV/dt effect of pulses with different rise times on the finger turn-on behavior of the SCRs are also investigated experimentally. In this work, unless noted otherwise, all the measurements are conducted using the Barth 4002 transmission line pulsing (TLP) and Barth 4012 very-fast transmission line pulsing (VFTLP) testers

Design, Characterization and Analysis of Component Level Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection Solutions

Electrostatic Discharges (ESD) is a significant hazard to electronic components and systems. Based on a specific process technology, a given circuit application requires a customized ESD consideration that meets all the requirements such as the core circuit\u27s operating condition, maximum accepted leakage current, breakdown conditions for the process and overall device sizes. In every several years, there will be a new process technology becomes mature, and most of those new technology requires custom design of effective ESD protection solution. And usually the design window will shrinks due to the evolving of the technology becomes smaller and smaller. The ESD related failure is a major IC reliability concern and results in a loss of millions dollars each year in the semiconductor industry. To emulate the real word stress condition, several ESD stress models and test methods have been developed. The basic ESD models are Human Body model (HBM), Machine Mode (MM), and Charge Device Model (CDM). For the system-level ESD robustness, it is defined by different standards and specifications than component-level ESD requirements. International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61000-4-2 has been used for the product and the Human Metal Model (HMM) has been used for the system at the wafer level. Increasingly stringent design specifications are forcing original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to minimize the number of off-chip components. This is the case in emerging multifunction mobile, industrial, automotive and healthcare applications. It requires a high level of ESD robustness and the integrated circuit (IC) level, while finding ways to streamline the ESD characterization during early development cycle. To enable predicting the ESD performance of IC\u27s pins that are directly exposed to a system-level stress condition, a new the human metal model (HMM) test model has been introduced. In this work, a new testing methodology for product-level HMM characterization is introduced. This testing framework allows for consistently identifying ESD-induced failures in a product, substantially simplifying the testing process, and significantly reducing the product evaluation time during development cycle. It helps eliminates the potential inaccuracy provided by the conventional characterization methodology. For verification purposes, this method has been applied to detect the failures of two different products. Addition to the exploration of new characterization methodology that provides better accuracy, we also have looked into the protection devices itself. ICs for emerging high performance precision data acquisition and transceivers in industrial, automotive and wireless infrastructure applications require effective and ESD protection solutions. These circuits, with relatively high operating voltages at the Input/Output (I/O) pins, are increasingly being designed in low voltage Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) technologies to meet the requirements of low cost and large scale integration. A new dual-polarity SCR optimized for high bidirectional blocking voltages, high trigger current and low capacitance is realized in a sub 3-V, 180-nm CMOS process. This ESD device is designed for a specific application where the operating voltage at the I/O is larger than that of the core circuit. For instance, protecting high voltage swing I/Os in CMOS data acquisition system (DAS) applications. In this reference application, an array of thin film resistors voltage divider is directly connected to the interface pin, reducing the maximum voltage that is obtained at the core device input down to ± 1-5 V. Its ESD characteristics, including the trigger voltage and failure current, are compared against those of a typical CMOS-based SCR. Then, we have looked into the ESD protection designs into more advanced technology, the 28-nm CMOS. An ESD protection design builds on the multiple discharge-paths ESD cell concept and focuses the attention on the detailed design, optimization and realization of the in-situ ESD protection cell for IO pins with variable operation voltages. By introducing different device configurations fabricated in a 28-nm CMOS process, a greater flexibility in the design options and design trade-offs can be obtained in the proposed topology, thus achieving a higher integration and smaller cell size definition for multi-voltage compatibility interface ESD protection applications. This device is optimized for low capacitance and synthesized with the circuit IO components for in-situ ESD protection in communication interface applications developed in a 28-nm, high-k, and metal-gate CMOS technology. ESD devices have been used in different types of applications and also at different environment conditions, such as high temperature. At the last section of this research work, we have performed an investigation of several different ESD devices\u27 performance under various temperature conditions. And it has been shown that the variations of the device structure can results different ESD performance, and some devices can be used at the high temperature and some cannot. And this investigation also brings up a potential threat to the current ESD protection devices that they might be very vulnerable to the latch-up issue at the higher temperature range

Conception, fabrication et caractérisation de dispositifs innovants de protection contre les décharges électrostatiques en technologie FDSOI

FDSOI architecture (Fully Depleted Silicon On Insulator) allows a significantimprovement of the electrostatic behavior of the MOSFETs transistors for the advancedtechnologies. It is industrially employed from the 28 nm node. However, theimplementation of ESD (Electrostatic Discharges) protections in these technologies isstill a challenge. While the standard approach relies on SOI substrate hybridization (byetching the BOX (buried oxide)), allowing to fabricate vertical power devices, we focushere on structures where the current flows laterally, in the silicon film. In this work,alternative approaches using innovative devices (Z²-FET and BBC-T) are proposed. Theirstatic, quasi-static and transient characteristics are studied in detail, with TCADsimulations and electrical characterizations.L’architecture FDSOI (silicium sur isolant totalement déserté) permet une amélioration significative du comportement électrostatique des transistors MOSFETs pour les technologies avancées et est employée industriellement à partir du noeud 28 nm.L’implémentation de protections contre les décharges électrostatiques (ESD pour« Electro Static Discharge ») dans ces technologies reste un défi. Alors que l’approche standard repose sur l’hybridation du substrat SOI (gravure de l’oxyde enterré : BOX)permettant de fabriquer des dispositifs de puissance verticaux, nous nous intéressons ici à des structures dans lesquelles la conduction s’effectue latéralement, dans le film de silicium. Dans ces travaux, des approches alternatives utilisant des dispositifs innovants(Z²-FET et BBC-T) sont proposées. Leurs caractéristiques statiques, quasi-statiques et transitoires sont étudiées, par le biais de simulations TCAD et de caractérisations électriques

Modeling and simulation of full-component integrated circuits in transient ESD events

This thesis presents a methodology to model and simulate transient electrostatic discharge (ESD) responses of integrated circuits (IC). To obtain valid simulation results, the IC component must be represented by a circuit netlist composed of device models that are valid under the ESD conditions. Models of the nonlinear devices that make up the ESD protection network of the IC must have transient I-V responses calibrated against measurements that emulate ESD events. Interconnects, power distribution networks, and the silicon substrate on the chip die as well as on the IC package must be faithfully constructed to emulate the fact that ESD current flows in a distributed manner across the entire IC component. The resultant equivalent circuit model therefore contains a huge number of nodes and devices, and the simulation runtime may be prohibitively long. Techniques must be devised to make the numerical simulation process more efficient without sacrifice of accuracy. These techniques include reasonable abstraction of the distributed full-component circuit netlist, dynamic piecewise-linear device models, and customized efficient transient circuit simulator. With the simulation streamlining techniques set up properly, comprehensive and predictive transient ESD simulation can be carried out efficiently to investigate the weakest link in the target IC, and the design can be fine-tuned to achieve optimal performance in both functionality and ESD reliability

Transient Safe Operating Area (tsoa) For Esd Applications

A methodology to obtain design guidelines for gate oxide input pin protection and high voltage output pin protection in Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) time frame is developed through measurements and Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD). A set of parameters based on transient measurements are used to define Transient Safe Operating Area (TSOA). The parameters are then used to assess effectiveness of protection devices for output and input pins. The methodology for input pins includes establishing ESD design targets under Charged Device Model (CDM) type stress in low voltage MOS inputs. The methodology for output pins includes defining ESD design targets under Human Metal Model (HMM) type stress in high voltage Laterally Diffused MOS (LDMOS) outputs. First, the assessment of standalone LDMOS robustness is performed, followed by establishment of protection design guidelines. Secondly, standalone clamp HMM robustness is evaluated and a prediction methodology for HMM type stress is developed based on standardized testing. Finally, LDMOS and protection clamp parallel protection conditions are identifie

Electrochemical noise limits of femtoampere-sensing, CMOS-integrated transimpedance amplifiers

Low-noise operational amplifiers are an important tool in the life sciences. Biosensor measurements typically rely on low-noise transimpedance amplifiers to record biological signals. Two different techniques were used to leverage the advantages of low-noise circuitry for bioelectronics. A CMOS-integrated system for measuring redox-active substrates using electrochemical read-out at very low noise levels is presented. The system incorporates 112 amplifier channels capable of current sensing with noise levels below 1 fArms in a 3.5-Hz bandwidth. The amplifier is externally connected to a gold microelectrode with a radius of 15 µm. The amplifier enables measurement of redox-couples such as potassium ferrocyanide/ferricyanide with concentrations down to 10 nM at current levels of only 300 fA. The electrochemical noise that sets the limits of detection is also measured and analyzed based on redox mass transfer equation and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Secondly, CMOS-integrated low noise junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) were developed in a standard 0.18-µm CMOS process. These JFETs reduce input referred flicker noise power by more than a factor of 10 when compared with equally sized n-channel MOS devices by eliminating oxide interfaces in contact with the channel. We show that this improvement in device performance translates into a factor-of-10 reduction in the input-referred noise of integrated CMOS operational amplifiers when JFET devices are used at the input

Stratégies de modélisation et protection vis à vis des décharges électrostatiques (ESD) adaptées aux exigences de la norme du composant chargé (CDM)

Dans l’industrie semiconducteur, une décharge électrostatique peut se produire tout au long de la vie d’une puce électronique, et constitue un vrai problème pour la fiabilité du circuit intégré et une cause majeure de défaillance. Un nouveau modèle, modèle du composant chargé (CDM, Charged Device Model) a été récemment développé pour simuler un composant chargé qui se décharge au travers d'une de ses broches vers la masse. La forme d’onde d’une telle décharge se présente comme une impulsion de courant de grande amplitude (15A pour un CDM de 1KV sur une capacité de charge de 10pF) d’une durée de seulement quelques nanosecondes. En effet, il est de plus en plus courant de constater des signatures de défaillance ESD au coeur des circuits intégrés, généralement des claquages d’oxyde qui sont typiquement induites par les décharges CDM. Une protection ESD ayant une dynamique de déclenchement inappropriée ou la circulation d'un fort courant de décharge (dans le substrat ou sur les pistes métalliques) peut induire localement des variations de potentiel suffisantes pour endommager les oxydes (3-5nm d’épaisseur pour la technologie CMOS 45nm). Face aux défis de la décharge CDM, dans cette thèse, nous nous sommes intéressée d’abord à la détection et la compréhension des défauts latents induits par les stress CDM dans les circuits intégrés, en utilisant une technique de haute sensibilité, « la mesure de bruit en basse fréquence ». Un convertisseur DC-DC a été stressé par le test CDM, après chaque étape de traitement (stockage, recuit, et vieillissement), et l’évolution des défauts latents générés a été étudiée. Ensuite, nous avons proposé une méthodologie de modélisation du circuit intégré complet afin de simuler la stratégie de protection vis-à-vis des stress CDM en limitant les problèmes de convergence de simulation. Son originalité réside dans la modélisation de la résistance du substrat en très forte injection adaptée à la décharge CDM à l’aide de la mesure VF-TLP (Very Fast Transmission Line Pulsing) et de la simulation physique 2D et 3D. La méthodologie a été validée sur une technologie CMOS avancée 45nm et une technologie BiCMOS 0,25mm). A la fin, la méthodologie de simulation CDM a été validée sur un produit commercial. ABSTRACT : In the semiconductor industry, electrostatic discharge (ESD) can occur throughout over the whole life of a chip. This is a real problem for the reliability of the integrated circuit (IC) and a major failure cause. A new ESD model, Charged Device Model (CDM) was recently developed to simulate a charged device which discharges through one of its pin to ground. The waveform of such a discharge is a current pulse of high amplitude (15A for a 1KV CDM stress on a precharged capacitor of 10pF) over a few nanoseconds duration. Indeed, it is increasingly common to encounter ESD failure signatures into the IC core, usually gate oxide breakdowns that are typically induced by CDM stress. ESD protections with inappropriate triggering speed or strong discharge currents (into the substrate or the metal tracks) can locally lead to potential drop sufficient to damage the oxide (3-5nm thickness in 45nm CMOS technology).Given the challenges of the CDM discharges, this thesis was firstly focused on the detection and understanding of latent defects caused by CDM stress in integrated circuits, using a high- ensitivity technique, namely low frequency noise measurement (LFN). A DCDC converter has been stressed by the CDM test. After each step of processing (storage, burn-in, and aging), the evolution of latent defects generated was investigated. Secondly, a methodology for modeling the complete integrated circuit has been proposed to simulate the CDM protection strategy by limiting the simulation convergence problems. Its main originality consists in the modeling of the substrate resistance under very high injection adapted to the CDM discharge using both VF-TLP (Very Fast Transmission Line Pulsing) measurement and 2D/3D physical simulation. The model was successfully validated on 45nm CMOS and 0.25 μm BiCMOS technologies. Finally, the CDM simulation methodology was validated on a commercial product

Dispositifs de protection contre les décharges électrostatiques pour les applications radio fréquences et millimétriques

Ces travaux s'inscrivent dans un contexte où les contraintes vis-à-vis des décharges électrostatiques sont de plus en plus fortes, les circuits de protection sont un problème récurrent pour les circuits fonctionnant à hautes fréquences. La capacité parasite des composants de protection limite fortement la transmission du signal et peut perturber fortement le fonctionnement normal d'un circuit. Les travaux présentés dans ce mémoire font suite à une volonté de fournir aux concepteurs de circuits fonctionnant aux fréquences millimétriques un circuit de protection robuste présentant de faibles pertes en transmission, avec des dimensions très petites et fonctionnant sur une très large bande de fréquences, allant du courant continu à 100 GHz. Pour cela, une étude approfondie des lignes de transmission et des composants de protection a été réalisée à l'aide de simulations électromagnétiques et de circuits. Placés et fragmentées le long de ces lignes de transmission, les composants de protection ont été optimisés afin de perturber le moins possible la transmission du signal, tout en gardant une forte robustesse face aux décharges électrostatiques. Cette stratégie de protection a été réalisée et validée en technologies CMOS avancées par des mesures fréquentielles, électriques et de courant de fuite.Advanced CMOS technologies provide an easier way to realize radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs). However, the lithography dimension shrink make electrostatic discharges (ESD) issues become more significant. Specific ESD protection devices are embedded in RFICs to avoid any damage. Unfortunately, ESD protections parasitic capacitance limits the operating bandwidth of RFICs. ESD protection size dimensions are also an issue for the protection of RFICs, in order to avoid a significant increase in production costs. This work focuses on a broadband ESD solution (DC-100 GHz) able to be implemented in an I/O pad to protect RFICs in advanced CMOS technologies. Thanks to the signal transmission properties of coplanar / microstrip lines, a broadband ESD solution is achieved by implementing ESD components under a transmission line. The silicon proved structure is broadband; it can be used in any RF circuits and fulfill ESD target. The physical dimensions also enable easy on-chip integration.SAVOIE-SCD - Bib.électronique (730659901) / SudocGRENOBLE1/INP-Bib.électronique (384210012) / SudocGRENOBLE2/3-Bib.électronique (384219901) / SudocSudocFranceF

Advances in Solid State Circuit Technologies

This book brings together contributions from experts in the fields to describe the current status of important topics in solid-state circuit technologies. It consists of 20 chapters which are grouped under the following categories: general information, circuits and devices, materials, and characterization techniques. These chapters have been written by renowned experts in the respective fields making this book valuable to the integrated circuits and materials science communities. It is intended for a diverse readership including electrical engineers and material scientists in the industry and academic institutions. Readers will be able to familiarize themselves with the latest technologies in the various fields