Comparison of the RC-triggered MOSFET-based ESD clamp circuits for an ultra-low power sensor system

This paper uses the RC-triggered MOSFET-based electrostatic discharge (ESD) power clamp to conduct ESD from ESD events and not affect the ultra-low power sensor system. Then using the stacked device include stacked MOSFET or stacked BJT to reduce the leakage current which increases with temperature. Moreover, we compare gate-driven method and two-level–driven with both gate-driven and substrate-driven methods to determine the most efficient method in terms of layout area, leakage current, Human Body Model (HBM)/Machine Model (MM), and turn-on time. The proposed design of the power ESD clamp (IO15c/IO15e/IO15c_resize) has an HBM ESD protection level with a Positive higher than 8KV, 5.5KV, 8KV, and an MM ESD protection level with a Positive higher than 600V, 300V, 1000V. The power ESD clamp (IO15c/IO15e) consumes nearly 3.5pW/16.45nW and 2.8pW/16.89nW at temperatures of 25°C and 125°C, respectively, when AVDD3 is 1.0V.