ESD protection design challenges for a high pin-count alpha microprocessor in a 0.13 μm CMOS SOI technology

We illustrate the complexity of designing ESD protection for a 64-bit microprocessor employing 140 million transistors. This IC contains 901 I/O signals, most operating at >1 Gbit/sec/pin, and ten power supplies split into 27 domains. An extensive set of CAD tools used to expedite ESD-related chip assembly and to analyze finished layout is described.