High-voltage power IC technology with nVDMOS, RESURF pLDMOS, and novel level-shift circuit for PDP scan-driver IC

A novel high-voltage (HV) CMOS IC technology using 25-μm-thick epitaxy layer based on 1.2-μm standard CMOS process for color plasma display panel (PDP) scan-driver ICs has been developed. In this technology, HV n-channel vertical double diffused MOS (nVDMOS), reduced surface field p-channel lateral double diffused MOS (pLDMOS), and the low-voltage CMOS (LVCMOS) are integrated together. The p⁺n junction isolation is used to isolate nVDMOS from the pLDMOS, LVCMOS, and other nVDMOSs. A novel level-shift circuit has also been suggested in the PDP scan-driver IC. The experimental results show that the breakdown voltages of the presented nVDMOS and pLDMOS both exceed 200V whether in the OFF or ON state. The rise and fall times of the proposed PDP scan-driver IC are about 270 and 50ns, respectively, which are two important performances to the high response speed of PDPs. The power consumption of the proposed PDP scan-driver IC with the novel level shift circuit has been reduced by about 20% compared with that of the PDP scan-driver IC with the conventional level shift circuit. Furthermore, the cost can be greatly saved using the presented bulk-silicon fabrication technology compared with the silicon-on-insulator technology.