Efficient Pre-Silicon ESD Verification for Enabling High Performance IO Design

In a high-speed IO (HS IO) design cycle, implementing optimized ESD solution is key to achieving high quality of the IO interface. It’s imperative for ESD implementation in high speed IO to have the best IO pad capacitance, area, and pin leakage. This requires special design and verification methods that allow performance optimization without compromising the ESD protection of the design. Additionally, the verification must be performed most efficiently and proactively, enabling an early convergence to achieve better TTM (Time to Market). This paper describes pre-silicon techniques for an optimized ESD solution enabling higher IO performance and a shift left in IO design schedule.