Title
A Novel ESD Clamp Based on the VO<inf>2</inf> Insulator-Metal Transition
Abstract
Protection from electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a continual challenge in semiconductor manufacturing, requiring significant die space for silicon-based rectifiers. On-chip ESD protection requires devices with a voltage-triggered reduction in resistance by orders of magnitude within a nanosecond or less, in order to safely divert current away from sensitive circuits, and which must return to insulating when the ESD event is over. This behaviour is inherent to insulator-metal transition (IMT) materials [1] like vanadium dioxide (VO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ), making them candidates for simple, highly compact ESD clamps that are both bipolar and potentially back-end of the line (BEOL) compatible, dealing with ESD events more rapidly and further away from sensitive devices. Here, we demonstrate VO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> snapback devices as compact ESD clamps and use transmission line pulse (TLP) testing to evaluate their reliability for the first time. We find that they have a snapback voltage which can be easily engineered via device length and are capable of sustaining current in the metallic state, yet still return to insulating once an event is over.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.1109/DRC46940.2019.9046397
2019 Device Research Conference (DRC)
Keywords
DocType
ISSN
transmission line pulse testing,electrostatic discharge,semiconductor manufacturing,silicon-based rectifiers,on-chip ESD protection,voltage-triggered reduction,insulator-metal transition materials,snapback devices,compact ESD clamps,IMT materials,back-end of the line,BEOL,TLP testing,reliability,VO2
Conference
1548-3770
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
978-1-7281-2113-0
0
0.34
References 
Authors
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Stephanie M. Bohaichuk100.68
Mario M. Pelella200.34
Yifei Sun300.34
Zhen Zhang4412.55
Shriram Ramanathan571.57
Eric Pop65012.07