Poly-Bounded Silicon-Controlled-Rectifier for ESD Protection in FinFET Technology

A low-capacitance, low trigger voltage, and fast turn-on silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) is developed for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of 10 circuits in a FinFET process technology. The SCR includes a deep N-well (DNW) for ground isolation, and a DNW biasing technique is introduced to significantly reduce both the DC current leakage and the parasitic capacitance. The advantages of using poly gates instead of shallow-trench isolation (STI) to separate the anode and cathode of the SCR are characterized through very-fast transmission line (VFTLP) measurements. The proposed SCR device can sink more than 10-A of VFTLP current at 5 V and with less than 80-fF of capacitive loading.