Analysis of an ESD suppressor used for IC protection

The time-domain moment method was successfully used to analyze the capacitance, the electric field, and the electrostatic discharge (ESD) current of an ESD suppressor used for integrated circuit (IC) protection. The obtained capacitance of this ESD suppressor was also validated by measurement data. From simulation results, it is found that the maximum electric field of 354000 kV/m occurs at 2 ns which is much higher than the threshold electric field of 2900 kV/m for air breakdown. The ESD current with pulse waveform has a maximum value of 4.7 mA at 0.2 ns and has a very short duration time of about 20 ns before the ESD current approaches zero.