Characterization and Modeling of Zener Diode Breakdown Voltage Mismatch

In this paper, we present test structures and procedures to characterize and model mismatch of the breakdown voltage of Zener diodes. Direct force-current/measure-voltage for breakdown is not sufficiently accurate for mismatch characterization, so we use an I(V) sweep followed by cubic interpolation; the accuracy of this approach is verified using the Tuinhout DUT-1-2-1-2 methodology. To demonstrate our approach, we present measured and modeled breakdown voltage mismatch for 5 V Zener diodes in a 90 nm power BCD process.