The ESD Handbook

9On-chip ESD Protection Circuits – Input Circuitry

9.1 Receivers and ESD

Receiver circuits and the electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of receiver circuits are very important in ESD design [1–6]. Why? Almost all products and applications contain standalone receivers, or bi-directional receiver/transmitter circuits. Receiver circuits are typically the most sensitive circuits in a chip application. Receiver performance has a critical role in the semiconductor chip performance. First, receiver circuits are small. Second, the receiver performance requirements limit the ESD loading on the receiver. Metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) gate area, bipolar emitter area, and electrical interconnect wiring widths impact the receiver performance. Third, receivers are electrically connected to either the MOSFET gate (in a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor [CMOS] receiver) and the bipolar base region (in a bipolar receiver); both the MOSFET gate dielectric region and the bipolar transistor base region are the more sensitive region of the structures. Hence, they evolve with MOSFET gate dielectric scaling and bipolar transistor performance objectives. Fourth, receivers require low series resistance. Because of these factors, the receiver is also one of the most interesting networks for evaluation of ESD protection. Since receivers are one of the smallest and most sensitive networks, they provide the opportunity to understand the future limitations on ESD protection ...