Total-Ionizing-Dose Tolerant SCR Devices with High Holding Voltage for ESD Protection

This work investigates a high-voltage (HV) electrostatic discharge (ESD) device with high holding voltage and strong irradiation tolerance, called P-well grounded silicon-controlled rectifier (PGSCR). The PGSCR devices are fabricated in a standard 0.18μ m bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process. Transmission line pulse (TLP) testing demonstrated that the PGSCR has a holding voltage of 18.79 V and a holding current of 3.61 A. The equivalent human body model protection level is up to 19 kV. Furthermore, γ-ray irradiation experiments demonstrated that even under total-ionizing-dose (TID) irradiation of 150 krad (Si), the ESD performance of the PGSCR exhibits minimal degradation, with the leakage current remaining at the nA level. Compared to existing HV ESD protection devices, the PGSCR exhibits superior area efficiency, high TID tolerance, and strong latch-up immunity, rendering it an exceptional candidate for HV ESD protection in space applications. © 1980-2012 IEEE.