A Low-Capacitance and Fast-Response Bidirectional SCR for RFICs ESD Protection Applications
For the radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection special applications, a novel low-capacitance and fast-response bidirectional silicon controlled rectifier (LFBSCR) is developed. The low capacitance is achieved by changing the series-parallel relationship of parasitic capacitances located in the electrostatic discharge path. Moreover, the fast-response-time (Ton) and the low triggering voltage (Vt1) parameters are obtained due to gate-assistant triggering mechanism. The experimented results show excellences of the LFBSCR in ESD protection critical performance: low parasitic capacitance CESD~100fF, fast effective response Ton~100ps, low triggering voltage Vt1~4.06V, and low leakage current Ileak~0.016nA. With aforementioned excellences, a high rbustness, and a small ESD design windows, the proposed LFBSCR is very suitable for RFICs ESD protection applications.