Electrostatic discharge protection for a 10 GHz low noise amplifier

Two 10-GHz LNAs, one with ESD protection and another without ESD protection were designed and implemented in 0.13 μm RFCMOS technology. The ESD protection used encompasses PI topology ESD protection, comprising the primary ESD protection diodes, LNA gate inductor and secondary ESD protection diodes, and RC-triggered MOSFET power clamps. The desired level of ESD protection for the LNA was 2 KV for the Human Body Model (HBM). Measured results of the LNAs showed that both have similar performance, and the ESD test results showed that an ESD protection higher than 2 KV can be achieved. The LNA with ESD protection passed a 2 KV ESD stress without showing leakage and degradation of the S-parameters and noise figure, demonstrating that degradation of RF parameters can be minimized by choosing the appropriate ESD protection and by taking it into account early in the design process.