Substrate current control in smart power IC's with a flexible protection structure

Crosstalks between high voltage power devices and low voltage CMOS devices due to substrate current are a major problem in automotive applications. This parasitic current induces unexpected failure system such as latchup in CMOS circuits. In this paper, an efficient, compact and flexible pull-down protection is proposed against this substrate current. It reduces this latter by more than 8 decades below the injected current level.