ESD RF Design

Summary

This chapter discusses electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection in radio frequency (RF) technology. In the ESD design discipline of RF circuits, there is a fundamental difference in the focus and methods that are required, and which are distinct from the ESD design practices used in ESD protection of digital circuitry. In RF complementary metal oxide semiconductors (RF‐CMOSs), a standard ESD protection network is the ESD double‐diode network. With the placement of a LC resonator circuit in series with an ESD network, the impedance of the network will approach infinity at the LC resonator resonant frequency. An RF series cascode low noise amplifier design utilizes a low resistance inductor structure and ESD diode clamping elements. RF distributed ESD networks for matching can be formed using series inductors and ESD diode networks. RF ESD design techniques can establish a synergy of design techniques; this is achieved by using RF methods for RF functional response, and ESD structural elements.