Enhance the ESD Ability of UHV 300-V Circular LDMOS Components by Embedded SCRs and the Robustness P-Body Well

Po-Lin Lin,Sheng-Kai Fan,Shen-Li Chen

doi:10.1109/jeds.2020.3041777

Po-Lin Lin, Sheng-Kai Fan + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1109/jeds.2020.3041777

Copy DOI

Abstract

The ultra-high voltage (UHV) Lateral-diffused MOSFET (LDMOS) transistor has been widely used in power circuit applications and also used as an electrostatic discharge (ESD) self-protection device. However, the ESD ability of an UHV LDMOS is generally worse than that of low- and high-voltage (HV) devices, which means this UHV LDMOS device can be easily failed under an ESD event. Then, the method of embedded a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) into the HV LDMOS has been used in the HV circuit as an ESD protection technique. But when this architecture is applied to UHV devices, will its ESD capability be as good as in HV devices? A novel SCR with a P-body well architecture is proposed, which can effectively enhance the ESD ability of the UHV nLDMOS device when the drain side is embedded this new structure. The proposed structure can greatly improve the ESD capability of the device without adding any extra process step (& photomask), layout area and affecting the basic breakdown voltage. Finally, the proposed structure of the PPP-arranged type with the P-body well can greatly increase the ESD (FOM) ability which $\text{I}_{\mathrm{ t2}}$ and HBM ability can be increased by 68.7% and 22.2% (72.9%), respectively, as compared with the conventional SCR PPP-arranged type.

Highlights

In recent years, the progress of an ultra-high voltage (UHV) process technology has developed vigorously, UHV Lateral-diffused MOSFET (LDMOS) power devices have scaled from discrete components to integrated circuits and has been widely used in power electronics, switching-mode power supply (SMPS), and power management circuits [1]–[3]
When the electrostatic discharge (ESD) event occurred in an UHV device, because the power dissipation of an UHV device is greater than that of low-voltage (LV) and highvoltage (HV) devices, the heat generated by the excessive power of the UHV device is difficult to dissipate, which may cause this UHV device to failure, thereby reducing the reliability of the circuit
A literature showed that the area of an UHV device is much larger than that of LV and HV devices, and the ESD capability is more fragile and still need improvement [15]

Summary

Introduction

The progress of an ultra-high voltage (UHV) process technology has developed vigorously, UHV LDMOS power devices have scaled from discrete components to integrated circuits and has been widely used in power electronics, switching-mode power supply (SMPS), and power management circuits [1]–[3]. The breakdown voltage, trigger voltage, holding voltage, secondary breakdown current and human-body model (HBM) capability had been measured by a semiconductor parameter analyzer, a 100-ns transmissionline pulsing (TLP) and human-body model (HBM) testing systems to evaluate the ESD ability after embedded the SCR and P-body layer in the UHV nLDMOS related devices.

Results

Conclusion