A novel high performance ESD power clamp circuit with a small area

【摘要】 <正>A MOSFET-based electrostatic discharge(ESD) power clamp circuit with only a 10 ns RC time constant for a 0.18-μm process is proposed.A diode-connected NMOSFET is used to maintain a long delay time and save area.The special structure overcomes other shortcomings in this clamp circuit.Under fast power-up events,the gate voltage of the clamp MOSFET does not rise as quickly as under ESD events,the special structure can keep the clamp MOSFET thoroughly off.Under a falsely triggered event,the special structure can turn off the clamp MOSFET in a short time.The clamp circuit can also reject the power supply noise effectively.Simulation results show that the clamp circuit avoids fast false triggering events such as a 30 ns/1.8 V power-up,maintains a 1.2 /μs delay time and a 2.14μs turn-off time,and reduces to about 70%of the RC time constant.It is believed that the proposed clamp circuit can be widely used in high-speed integrated circuits.更多还原

【Abstract】 A MOSFET-based electrostatic discharge(ESD) power clamp circuit with only a 10 ns RC time constant for a 0.18-μm process is proposed.A diode-connected NMOSFET is used to maintain a long delay time and save area.The special structure overcomes other shortcomings in this clamp circuit.Under fast power-up events,the gate voltage of the clamp MOSFET does not rise as quickly as under ESD events,the special structure can keep the clamp MOSFET thoroughly off.Under a falsely triggered event,the special structure can turn off the clamp MOSFET in a short time.The clamp circuit can also reject the power supply noise effectively.Simulation results show that the clamp circuit avoids fast false triggering events such as a 30 ns/1.8 V power-up,maintains a 1.2 /μs delay time and a 2.14μs turn-off time,and reduces to about 70%of the RC time constant.It is believed that the proposed clamp circuit can be widely used in high-speed integrated circuits.更多还原