Antenna protection strategy for ultra-thin gate MOSFETs

Abstract

We compare the efficacy of drain-well diodes and gated diodes as antenna protection under positive as well as negative plasma damage for gate oxides down to 21 /spl Aring/. Our results indicate that a nominal drain/substrate p-n junction (0.49 /spl mu/m/sup 2/) is capable of device protection for antennas up to 100k /spl mu/m, and can be extended down to 21 /spl Aring/ devices. We also present here novel protection schemes using (1) plasma UV exposed n-well-to-substrate diodes, and (2) a transient fuse for device protection against latent antenna damage.