ESD

7Analog-ESD Signal Pin Co-synthesis

7.1 Analog Signal Pin

Receiver circuits are very important in analog electrostatic discharge (ESD) design because of the ESD sensitivity of these networks [1–7]. Typically, the analog receiver circuits are the most sensitive circuits in a chip application. Receiver performance has a critical role in the semiconductor chip performance. The primary reasons for this are as follows:

• Analog receiver circuits are small in physical area.
• Analog performance requirements limit the ESD loading allowed on the receiver. MOSFET gate area, bipolar emitter area, and electrical interconnect wiring widths impact the receiver performance.
• Analog receiver inputs are electrically connected to either MOSFET gate (in a CMOS receiver) where the MOSFET gate dielectric region is the most ESD-sensitive region in RF MOSFET receiver networks. RF MOSFET gate dielectric scales with the RF performance objectives.
• Analog receiver inputs are electrically connected to the bipolar base region (in a bipolar receiver) where the bipolar transistor emitter–base junction is the most ESD-sensitive region of the bipolar transistor. The base region scales with RF performance objectives.
• Both the MOSFET gate dielectric region and the bipolar transistor base region are the more sensitive region of the structures.
• Analog receivers require low series resistance.

Analog signal pins will require ESD protection on a semiconductor chip to protect from physical damage [1–10]. Cosynthesis ...