ESD diodes with Si/SiGe superlattice I/O finFET architecture in a vertically stacked horizontal nanowire technology

As the integrated circuit technology scaling continues, the stacked horizontal nanowire FET has emerged as a potential successor to the FinFET. Unfortunately, stacking horizontal nanowires on top of each other puts a hard limit to the oxide thickness which is needed for thick oxide I/O transistors. The Si/SiGe superlattice FinFET was proposed as a simple solution to increase the I/O transistor performance. In this paper, we show the superior electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness of superlattice gated diodes compared to nanowire gated diodes. Furthermore, comparing the superlattice gated diodes to STI diodes, we show that it can reach comparable levels of ESD robustness, making it an attractive alternative.