A Novel High Latch-Up Immunity Electrostatic Discharge Protection Device for Power Rail in High-Voltage ICs

In this letter, a novel high latch-up immunity electrostatic discharge protection device that can be equivalent to a PNP-type bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and a series-connected Zener diode is proposed. For the proposed device, the emitter of its BJT is formed by Zener implantation instead of conventional P-plus. In this way, the high latch-up immunity can be achieved by the Zener implantation dose and window designing. Meanwhile, the proposed device exhibits excellent voltage clamp capability and 2.2 times large second breakdown current as a generally used diode.

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