Transient-to-digital converter for system-level electrostatic discharge protection in CMOS ICs

Ming-Dou Ker*, Cheng Cheng Yen

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    19 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    A new on-chip RC-based transient detection circuit for system-level electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is proposed, which can detect fast electrical transients during the system-level ESD test. A novel on-chip transient-to-digital converter composed of four RC-based transient detection circuits and four different RC filter networks has been successfully designed and verified in a 0.18-μm CMOS process with 3.3-V devices. The output digital thermometer codes of the proposed on-chip transient-to-digital converter correspond to different ESD voltages under system-level ESD tests. The proposed on-chip transient-to-digital converter can be further combined with firmware cooperation to provide an effective solution to solve the system-level ESD protection issue in microelectronic systems equipped with CMOS ICs.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)620-630
    Number of pages11
    JournalIEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility
    Volume51
    Issue number3 PART 2
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 30 Apr 2009

    Keywords

    • Converter
    • Detection circuit
    • Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC)
    • Electrostatic discharge (ESD)
    • ESD protection circuit
    • System-level ESD test

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