A novel on-chip ESD protection circuit for GaAs HBT RF power amplifiers

A low capacitance, on-chip Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection circuit for GaAs power amplifiers that does not degrade RF circuit performance is introduced. It's principle of operation, capacitance loading, leakage current, ESD clamping characteristics, and robustness over process variation and temperature will be presented. Finally, a case study of its application to wireless local area network 11.802A, 5.8GHz power amplifier will be discussed.