An Improved Negative Transient Voltage Noise Immunity for an HVIC using Self-shielding Structure

In this paper, we have studied parasitic bipolar actions which cause malfunctions under the negative VS noise in the self-shielded HVIC numerically and experimentally, and proposed a new structure for the self-shielded level-shifters in HVICs. The new structure, which has narrow base/source pitch and p+/n+ VB pickup, suppressed abnormal behaviors of the level-shifter due to the parasitic bipolar actions. An HVIC with the new structure showed more than 1.5x higher negative VS noise immunity compared to a conventional HVIC without increasing the chip size and fabrication cost.