Electrostatic Discharge Power Supply Clamp Circuit With a Modified-Resistor/Capacitor Network
Yue Wu, Yi Liu, Ruizhen Wu, Yintang Yang, Yaping Yue · Sensors and Materials · 2024
The resistor/capacitor (RC)-triggered power supply clamp circuit has been widely utilized to protect CMOS integrated circuits (ICs) from damage caused by electrostatic discharge (ESD).In this work, an ESD power supply clamp circuit with a modified-RC network in a 0.18-μm CMOS process is proposed.The layout area of the novel RC network is ultrasmall compared with that of the traditional RC network in a clamp circuit.The proposed clamp circuit can keep the clamp device "on" during the ESD event, whereas it allows a turn-off mechanism with a recovery time of 70 μs under a system-level test.The clamp circuit can effectively avoid false triggering events, such as a 1.8 V/10 ns power-up event.With its high performance and low area cost, this clamp circuit can be used in the sensor IC of industry.