A Modified CLTdSCR With Low Leakage and Low Capacitance for ESD Protection

A modified cross-coupling low-triggering dual-polarity silicon controlled rectifier (
${m}$
-CLTdSCR) for on-chip electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is developed. Cross-coupling mechanism can effectively reduce the trigger voltage of the proposed structure. A lower leakage is achieved by replacing NMOS with PMOS and changed connection, and this also effectively reduces the parasitic capacitance of
${m}$
-CLTdSCR between anode and cathode. The new structure shows low-triggering voltage ~3.46 V, low leakage ~0.46 nA under normal operation condition, and low parasitic capacitance ~190 fF at zero bias. As such, the proposed
${m}$
-CLTdSCR is an attractive device for radio frequency integrated circuits (RFICs) ESD protection.