Design of ESD Protection Device for $K\!/\!Ka$ -Band Applications in Nanoscale CMOS Process

An inductor-assisted silicon-controlled rectifier (LASCR) device is proposed to protect the gigahertz ICs in nanoscale CMOS technologies from electrostatic discharge (ESD) damages. The LASCR with the assistance of inductor can provide the bidirectional ESD current paths and fine-tune the high-frequency performances. Each LASCR test device has been implemented in a compact size of ~100 × 100 μm
²
. The LASCR test devices have been successfully verified in a silicon chip to achieve 4-7.5 kV human-body-model ESD robustness with 1-3-dB loss in K/Ka-band (18-40 GHz). With the better performances, the proposed ESD protection device is very suitable for K/Ka-band applications.