A transient triggered bipolar clamp for electrostatic discharge protection in SiGe BiCMOS technologies

An active ESD supply clamp for mixed voltage RF applications developed in advanced SiGe BiCMOS process is introduced. The clamp is designed using a three-stage architecture consisting of transient-detection, timing and beta-multiplication. The proposed design ensures the clamp has very low leakage even when circuits operate at supply voltages that are equal to or beyond the breakdown voltage of the core SiGe bipolar devices. The clamp's turn-on characteristics spans the full duration of the actual ESD events making it fully capable to effectively protect the sensitive devices in the core circuit.