Transient voltage suppressor based on diode-triggered low-voltage silicon controlled rectifier

Transient voltage suppressor (TVS) has been widely used for electronic system ESD protection. A good TVS is usually costive as it needs some special processes and with extra masking layers for fabrication. A novel TVS design based on the standard CMOS process will be much attractive. This work proposes a new TVS device using a CMOS compatible diode-triggered silicon controlled rectifier (DLVTSCR) as the core device. Due to the available of multiple trigger mechanisms and the dual current paths for bypassing the ESD current, the newly proposed device is able to sink an ESD current of over 10 A. In addition, the holding voltage is promoted up to 6.83 V and the trigger voltage is lowered down to 10.8 V which is well suit for most portable device applications.