Circuit and layout co-design for ESD protection in bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) high-voltage process

The n-channel lateral double-diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (nLDMOS) devices in high-voltage (HV) technologies are known to have poor electrostatic discharge (ESD) robustness. To improve the ESD robustness of nLDMOS, a co-design method combining a new waffle layout structure and a trigger circuit is proposed to fulfill the body current injection technique in this work. The proposed layout and circuit co-design method on HV nLDMOS has successfully been verified in a 0.5-μm 16-V bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process and a 0.35- μm 24-V BCD process without using additional process modification. Experimental results through transmission line pulse measurement and failure analyses have shown that the proposed body current injection technique can significantly improve the ESD robustness of HV nLDMOS.