A Radiation-Hardened Dual-Direction SCR Based on LDMOS for ESD Protection in the Extreme Radiation Environment
Ming Wu, Chenchen Zhang, Wei Peng, Jun Xu, Jin Hu, Yun Zeng, Zhuojun Chen
Abstract
To mitigate the total ionizing dose (TID) effects of the dual-direction silicon-controlled rectifier, based on laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS-DDSCR), a common-centroid layout arrangement with multiple octagonal units is proposed and fabricated in an 18-V Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process. The symmetrical characteristics of the bidirectional electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection are verified by transmission line pulse tests. Gamma-ray irradiation experiments demonstrate that the proposed device is tolerant of TID effects up to 100 krad(Si), whereas the traditional finger-type LDMOS-DDSCR loses its function at 50 krad(Si). Finally, the ESD performance is also characterized at high temperatures which confirms that the proposed device is an excellent candidate for space applications.