Strategies to cope with plasma charging damage in design and layout phases

In this paper, strategics to cope with plasma charging damage in design and layout phases are discussed. A semi-empirical model is addressed first. With this model, a designer is able to predict the plasma charging induced yield loss of the circuit, if the antenna ratio (AR) distribution of the circuit is available. Then a novel first order self-balancing interconnect layout design is proposed to reduce the plasma charging damage. Moreover, the temperature effect on the protection diode is discussed and a strategic diode protection scheme for plasma charging damage is proposed. In addition to these general methods, a set of design rules is given to protect floating metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors from plasma charging damage.