Texas Instruments Corporation

Yang Xiu

Akram Ali Salman

Aravind Chennimalai Appaswamy

Mariano Dissegna

Farzan Farbiz

According to an embodiment, a bipolar transistor is disclosed for Electrostatic discharge (ESD) management in integrated circuits. The bipolar transistor enables vertical current flow in a bipolar transistor cell configured for ESD protection. The bipolar transistor includes a selectively embedded P-type floating buried layer (PBL). The floating P-region is added in a standard NPN cell. During an ESD event, the base of the bipolar transistor extends to the floating P-region with a very small amount of current. The PBL layer can provide more holes to support the current resulting in decreased holding voltage of the bipolar transistor. With the selective addition of floating P-region, the current scalability of the bipolar transistor at longer pulse widths can be significantly improved.

High voltage bipolar structure for improved pulse width scalability

An apparatus includes: a first SCR device having a first source terminal coupled to a signal terminal, a first body terminal coupled to the first source terminal, a first gate terminal coupled to the signal terminal, and a first drain terminal; a second SCR device having a second drain terminal coupled to the first drain terminal, a second gate terminal coupled to a reference voltage terminal; and a second source terminal coupled to the reference voltage terminal. The apparatus also includes: a third SCR device having a third source terminal coupled to the signal terminal, a third gate terminal coupled to the first gate terminal, and a third drain terminal; a first capacitor coupled between the third drain terminal and the second gate terminal; and a second capacitor coupled between the second gate terminal and the reference voltage terminal.

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Urbana, IL, United States of America

Yang Xiu