Design optimization of gate-silicided ESD NMOSFETs in a 45nm bulk CMOS technology

Decrease of the drain silicide-blocking-to-gate spacing in gate-silicided-ESD-NMOSFETs improves the TLP and HBM failure levels up to 30%, while no effect is observed when decreasing the source silicide-blocking-to-gate spacing. Failure analysis and simulation results show that current crowding in the drain silicide region accounts for the difference in failure current for the devices.