Design of Destruction Protection and Sustainability Low-Dropout Regulator Using an Electrostatic Discharge Protection Circuit

Abstract

In terms of sustainable power semiconductors, the embedding of an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection circuit in an integrated circuit (IC) is an important aspect. In order for the semiconductor circuit to operate continuously or stably, a sufficient protection circuit against external surges must be configured. The purpose of this thesis is not only to effectively operate the low-dropout (LDO) regulator according to the load current, but to also secure high reliability against ESD situations by embedding an ESD protection circuit at the IC level. Moreover, the existence and nonexistence of an ESD protection circuit at the IC level is directly related to reliability. The proposed LDO regulator has high reliability against ESD situations using an embedded silicon controlled rectifier (SCR)-based ESD protection circuit in the I/O clamp and power clamp. The results revealed that the LDO regulator can not only effectively control the output voltage according to the load current, but it can also stably maintain the output voltage against the ESD surge. Moreover, the proposed LDO regulator with an embedded ESD protection circuit implemented in a 0.13 μm BCD process maintained an undershoot voltage of 21 mV and overshoot voltage of 19 mV for a load current of 300 mA.