HIGH-VOLTAGE TOLERANT POWER-RAIL ESD CLAMP CIRCUIT
A high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit is proposed, in which circuit devices can safely operate under the high power supply voltage that is three times larger than their process limitation without gate-oxide reliability issue. Moreover, an ESD detection circuit is used to effectively improve the whole ESD protection function by substrate-triggered technique. Because only low voltage (1*VDD) devices are used to achieve the object of high voltage (3*VDD) tolerance, the proposed design provides a cost effective power-rail ESD protection solution to chips with mixed-voltage interfaces.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ESD clamp circuit and, more particularly, to a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
ESD protection is used to protect ICs from damage due to ESD events. When applied to a mixed-voltage IO interface, because there simultaneously exists more than two power supply voltages on this interface, both thin and thick gate oxide devices are usually simultaneously used with the considerations on product reliability, operating frequency, chip area, and so on. Though ICs with mixed-voltage circuits can be manufactured with both thin and thick gate-oxide devices by using extra process steps and additional mask layers, but they will increase the product cost and lower the production yield. Moreover, a thick-gate-oxide device has inferior device characteristics than that of the thin one, so that the operating frequency of chips will be limited. Therefore, if thin-gate-oxide devices can be applied under high operating voltages without reliability issue, the steps of manufacturing thick-gate-oxide devices can be saved.
Existing technologies relating to high-voltage-tolerant ESD protection can generally be categorized into three kinds. The first kind is an ESD protection element without gate-oxide structure. Because this kind of devices has no gate oxide, the gate oxide issue won't arise even if the operating voltage exceeds process limitation. But if this kind of device is used alone as the ESD protection element, the turn-on speed will be slower and the turn-on voltage will be higher during ESD, hence being unable to effectively protect internal circuits with thin gate oxides. If a forward-biased diode string is used as the ESD protection element, although a faster turn-on speed can be achieved, there will be a very large leakage current during operation under high temperatures because of parasitic pnp BJTs and Darlington beta gain. The second kind has a trigger circuit and an ESD clamp circuit of the primary ESD protection element. But this kind of devices can only tolerate a maximum power supply voltage, no more than two times of their device limitation. Most of the prior arts belong to this kind, e.g., an ESD protection element manufactured with 1.2-V devices but operated under 2.5-V power supply voltage. If the power supply voltage exceeds two times of their device limitation, the gate-oxide reliability issue of device will arise. Similar to the second kind, the third kind has a trigger circuit and an ESD architecture of the primary ESD protection element, but can tolerate a power supply voltage three times of their device limitation.
The above third kind of ESD (e.g., “High voltage power supply clamp circuitry for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection” disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,219) has a complicated circuit, and utilizes three stacked PMOS elements as the primary ESD path, hence having a larger turn-on resistance. In order to acquire a better ESD protection capability, a larger chip area is required, and different ESD elements cannot be matched for use, hence being less flexible. Although other ESD protection elements without gate oxide such as silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs) can operate under high power supply voltages without oxide gate reliability issue, these elements usually have a very slow turn-on speed and a too high turn-on voltage, and cannot effectively protect the chip circuits when used alone without being triggered by external circuits. Moreover, existing trigger circuits cannot operate under a power supply voltage three times of their device limitation.
The present invention aims to propose a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit to solve the above problems in the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAn object of the present invention is to provide a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit, in which an ESD detection circuit is used to provide a substrate-triggered current to an ESD protection element when an ESD event occurs so as to enhance the turn-on speed and turn-on uniformity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit, in which the ESD detection circuit can match different ESD protection elements for use to meet different applications or specifications.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit, in which there won't be any gate-oxide reliability issue when applying the ESD detection circuit to mixed-voltage IO interfaces.
To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit, which comprises an ESD detection circuit and an ESD protection element. The ESD detection circuit is connected to at least a voltage source and a ground terminal and used to detect whether there is ESD between the voltage source and the ground terminal. The ESD detection circuit further comprises a voltage divider for splitting an input voltage of the voltage source into two divided voltages, a substrate driver for driving a substrate to produce a trigger current, an RC distinguisher, a fourth transistor and a second resistor. The ESD protection element is triggered on via the trigger current of the trigger node by the ESD detection circuit to quickly and uniformly discharge an ESD current in an ESD situation, hence having no gate-oxide reliability issue.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe various objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawing, in which:
FIGS. 7(a) to 7(e) are diagrams of the primary ESD protection element according to different embodiments of the present invention: (a) Field-oxide device (FOD), (b) SCR device, (c) stacked SCR devices, (d) SCR device with diodes in series, and (e) triple stacked NMOS structure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTSThe present invention provides a high-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit, in which a substrate-triggered current is provided to drive different ESD protection elements under ESD stress. The substrate-triggered current has been reported to be beneficial to many ESD protection devices, such as the STNMOS (substrate-triggered NMOS) device, the SCR device, and the FOD (field oxide) device. The substrate-triggered current can improve ESD robustness of these ESD protection devices by increasing their turn-on speed and turn-on uniformity under ESD stress.
As shown in
As shown in
When the high voltage source VDDh and the low voltage source VDDl are powered on, the gate of the first transistor 142 will get a 2.2-V bias (⅔*VDDh) from the node a of the voltage divider 12, and the bias of the second transistor 144 is 2.2-V minus the threshold voltage of the first transistor 142. With a gate-to-source bias of 0V, the second transistor 144 should be kept off. The source voltage of the third transistor 146 which is the same as the voltage on node b is biased at 1.1V (⅓*VDDh) through the voltage divider, while its gate (node e in
In this ESD detection circuit 10, the drain-to-gate voltage of the first transistor 142 is (3.3-2.2)V, which means the first transistor 142 is working at inversion region under the normal circuit operating conditions. Therefore, the induced channel region of the first transistor 142 could be insufficient to shade the strength of the electric field across the gate/bulk junctions if its bulk region is grounded. In other words, there could be gate-oxide reliability issue on the gate of the first transistor 142 if its bulk is grounded. Therefore, to avoid this possible issue, bulk of the first transistor 142 is connected to the source node of its own. To avoid the leakage current path through the p-type bulk of the first transistor 142 to the grounded p-substrate, the bulk of the first transistor 142 is isolated by the deep N-well with 3.3-V bias from the common p-substrate, as the diagram in
During the power-on transition, the ESD detection circuit 10 should be kept off so that the ESD detection circuit 10 does not improperly trigger on the ESD protection element 30 or result in unwished leakage current from the substrate driver 14. This can be achieved through taking advantage of the rise time of normal power-on signals, which are in the order of several milliseconds (ms). Therefore, as long as the RC time delay of the RC distinguisher 16 is much smaller than several milliseconds (several microseconds for example), the voltage on node d can follow up the voltage transition on node c to turn off the second transistor 144 during normal power-on transition.
As shown in
After the first transistor 142 is turned on, voltage on node c is pulled high while voltage on node d is kept low due to the RC time delay of the RC distinguisher 16. During ESD transient events, the floating VDD1 has an initial voltage level around ˜0V; the large parasitic capacitance of internal circuits on VDD1 power line and the 1 kΩ resistor will keep VDD1 at low voltage level during ESD transition for a long while. Therefore, because the second transistor 144 and the third transistor 146 work at on state during the ESD transition, the substrate driver 14 can be quickly turned on by the ESD energy to generate the trigger current into the primary ESD protection element 30.
FIGS. 7(a) to 7(e) show some embodiments of the primary ESD protection element 30. Devices with inherent n-p-n bipolar junction transistor can be driven by the proposed ESD detection circuit to protect the ICs against ESD damage. For example, the FOD (field oxide) device that has no gate oxide structure is a choice for the primary ESD protection element, as shown in
To sum up, the present invention provides a three-voltage tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit realized with only 1.2-V low-voltage devices for 1.2-V/3.3-V mixed-voltage I/O interface. The proposed power-rail ESD clamp circuit is free from the gate-oxide reliability issue and the ESD detection circuit can be quickly turned on to provide the substrate-triggered current so as to drive the ESD protection element to discharge ESD current during the ESD transition.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and other will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
FIGURE REFERENCE NUMERALS
- 10: ESD detection circuit
- 12: voltage divider
- 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126: PMOS
- 14: substrate driver
- 142: first transistor
- 144: second transistor
- 146: third transistor
- 16: R-C distinguisher
- 162: first resistor
- 164: capacitor
- 18: fourth transistor
- 20: fifth transistor
- 22: second resistor
- 30: ESD protection element
- 30: ESD protection element
FIG. 3 - P : p-type substrate
FIGS. 4 and 5 - : voltage
- : time
- : node
FIG. 6 - : current
- : time
- : substrate-triggered current
FIG. 7 - : ESD detection circuit
- : connected to node a
Claims
1. A power-rail ESD clamp circuit with high-voltage tolerant capability comprising:
- an ESD detection circuit connected to at least a voltage source and a ground terminal and used to detect whether there is ESD between said voltage source and said ground terminal, said ESD detection circuit further comprising: a voltage divider including a plurality of p-type transistors to split an input voltage of said voltage source into two divided voltages; a substrate driver connected with said voltage divider and used to drive a substrate to produce a trigger current, said substrate driver including a first transistor, a second transistor and a third transistor, a first node being located between said first transistor and said second transistor, said third transistor being connected to a trigger node; an RC distinguisher including a first resistor and a capacitor, one end of said first resistor being connected to said first node, and another end being connected to a gate of said second transistor and said capacitor to form a second node; a fourth transistor connected to said substrate driver via said trigger node and to said RC distinguisher via a third node; and a second resistor with one end connected to said third node and another end connected to a low voltage source;
- an ESD protection element triggered on via said trigger current of said trigger node by said ESD detection circuit to quickly and uniformly discharge an ESD current in an ESD situation.
2. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said voltage divider includes a plurality of p-type transistors.
3. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said voltage divider splits an input voltage of said voltage source into two divided voltages.
4. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said first transistor in said substrate driver is an NMOS transistor, and said second and third transistors are PMOS transistors.
5. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 4, wherein said first transistor is a deep N-well MOS transistor.
6. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said capacitor is composed of PMOS transistor.
7. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein when said first node and said second node have equal voltages, said second transistor will be off to let said ESD detection circuit not trigger said ESD protection element.
8. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein when said first transistor is on, voltage of said first node will keep at a low voltage level due to an RC time delay of said RC distinguisher to raise voltage of said second node.
9. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein when an ESD event instantaneously occurs and said second and third transistors operate under the ESD event, said substrate driver will be quickly turned on by energy of ESD to produce said trigger current that flows from said trigger node into said ESD protection element.
10. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein a bulk region of said first transistor is connected to a source node of said first transistor.
11. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein when said first transistor is turned on, voltage of said first node will be higher than that of said second node due to an RC time delay of said RC distinguisher so as to let said substrate driver send out a trigger current that flows into said ESD protection element.
12. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein when said fourth transistor is turned on, a noise margin of said ESD detection circuit is increased.
13. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD detection circuit further comprises a fifth transistor that is disposed between said voltage divider and said first transistor and used as a capacitor.
14. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD protection element is a field oxide device without a gate oxide structure.
15. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD protection element is a silicon-controlled rectifier.
16. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD protection element is formed by stacking a plurality of silicon-controlled rectifiers, and diodes are provided between said trigger node and trigger nodes of said silicon-controlled rectifiers.
17. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD protection element is formed by stacking a silicon-controlled rectifier and a plurality of diodes, and said trigger node is connected to a trigger point of said silicon-controlled rectifier.
18. The power-rail ESD clamp circuit of claim 1, wherein said ESD protection element is composed of three NMOS transistors, uppermost of said NMOS is connected to a first voltage dividing node in said voltage divider, and a gate of middle of said NMOS is biased at said low voltage source.
Type: Application
Filed: Jul 5, 2006
Publication Date: Oct 4, 2007
Inventors: Ming-Dou Ker (Hsinchu City), Wen-Yi Chen (Taipei City)
Application Number: 11/428,571
International Classification: H02H 9/00 (20060101);