Investigation of the Effect of the TVS Diode Resonant Frequency on the Signal Integrity of an Off-Chip ESD-Protected Circuit

TVS diode, like other electronic components, has a specific and even non-ideal behavior that depends on its resonant frequency. The TVS diode resonant frequency has a destructive effect on signal integrity in a way that if the operating frequency of the core circuit is around the resonant frequency, signal loss increases considerably. In this work, the frequency response of the shunted TVS diode falls into two dead and safe regions, and the TVS diode's two capacitive and inductive behaviors are analyzed. Also, the influential factors which can change resonant frequency, including DC bias voltage, breakdown voltage, series passive elements, and package dimensions, have been proposed, and their shortcomings are reviewed. Also, the effect of package size on the signal integrity has been investigated by eye diagram and the TVS diode's SPICE macro model of SMA, SMB, and SMC series by measuring the S-parameter turns into a realistic model which can be utilized in System-Efficient ESD Design methodology.