Hot Topics in ESD

The article discusses ESD protection challenges for RF switches in SOI technology. It examines the self-protection mechanism, proposes a behavioral model to simulate ESD response more accurately, and explores predicting failure current levels critical for reliable ESD design.

It is now well known that testing for CDM ESD evaluation is becoming a bigger challenge. An alternate approach called capacitively coupled transmission line pulsing (CCTLP) offers advantages over standard field-induced CDM testing.

The ESDA technology roadmap is written to support and guide the daily work of ESD and latch-up experts in the worldwide industry and academia.

The behavior of ultra-high-speed interfaces is complex, involving fast-rise time waveforms and on-die transient phenomena that cause device failure at lower CDM levels.

This column outlines the steps to consider when embedding ESD detection capabilities into your system and overall design flow.

This column focuses on the practical aspects of implementing embedded ESD detection. We’ll provide a step-by-step guide, discuss validation and testing methodologies, present case studies, and delve into future trends and innovations in the field.

ESD “event detectors” have been used for years in factory environments to identify and remediate ESD discharges during manufacturing. Now design engineers are embedding system-level and on-chip ESD detection technologies into their systems to analyze and recover from both factory and field ESD events.

Simple star-tree networks, as shown here for USB2, should have wide applicability for cables carrying fast signals.

In Part 1 of the article, we reviewed what EDA tools are good for. Here we will discuss EDA tool limitations.

Going back several decades, Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) design and layout checks that were done manually were laborious and time-consuming, let alone not confidently reliable.