Active Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Device for On-Chip ESD Protection in Sub-Quarter-Micron Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) Process

A novel electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device with a threshold voltage of ∼0V for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits in sub-quarter-micron CMOS technology is proposed. Quite different to the traditional ESD protection devices, such an active ESD device is originally standing in its turn-on state when the IC is zapped under ESD events. Therefore, such an active ESD device has the fastest turn-on speed and the lowest turn-on voltage to effectively protect the internal circuits with a much thinner gate oxide in future sub-0.1 μm CMOS technology. The proposed active BSD device is fully process-compatible to the general sub-quarter-micron CMOS process.