TCAD software for ESD on-chip protection design

Abstract

Electrostatic discharges (ESD) have always been a serious problem in the semiconductor industry. The presence of high electric fields and the amount of energy dissipated by the semiconductor devices during an ESD can give rise to electric breakdown of sensitive isolation layers as well as local melting, which leads to a latent damage or even breakdown of the whole integrated circuit (IC). One measure to prevent the breakdown of the IC is to provide the product with an adequate ESD robustness by implementing a kind of lightning conductor in the form of a protection element on the product itself. This methodology is called on-chip ESD protection.