Thermal failure and voltage overshoot models for diode behavior under electrostatic discharge stresses

Diodes are simple but effective solution for Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection. In order to evaluate and simulate ESD robustness of diode protection schemes at circuit-level for integrated circuits, models of diode thermal failure and voltage overshoot for ESD simulation are proposed in this paper. These models are based on physical mechanisms of ESD events and device failure. According to simulation results, the models are shown to predict thermal failure and reproduce voltage overshoot phenomena under ESD stresses, respectively.