Semiself-Protection Scheme for Gigahertz High-Frequency Output ESD Protection

In this paper, a semiself-protection scheme is proposed and developed for gigahertz output electrostatic-discharge (ESD) protection. The output transistor acts as a trigger device to trigger the ESD protection device, and then, it is turned off when the ESD protection device turns on. Thus, the capacitance of a gigahertz high-frequency output pad can be minimized because this scheme is without any additional trigger device or any passive component.