ESD sensitivity study of various diode protection circuits implemented in a production 1 /spl mu/m GaAs HBT technology

Abstract

Advanced GaAs Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs) featuring smaller junction areas have an increased susceptibility to damage from Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) events and this is a topic of concern. In this paper, we examined the ESD sensitivity of various on-chip ESD-protection networks designed using base-collector (BC) junction diodes and Schottky diodes from a production 1 /spl mu/m GaAs/AIGaAs HBT process. The purpose of this work was to measure and evaluate the ESD sensitivity of various protection networks and determine their effectiveness as protection devices.