Inverstigation of high turn-on speed MOS-Triggered SCR in 0.13μm CMOS process

MOS-Triggered Silicon Controlled Rectifier(SCR) has been used as on chip Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection. However, the inherit slow turn-on speed is a major drawback of SCR. The compact MOS-Triggered SCR devices have been proposed and investigated in a 0.13μm CMOS process with the consideration of turn-on speed. From the test results, the turn on time of compact MOS-Triggered SCR has improved from ~13ns of merged MOS-triggered SCR to ~4ns. Compared to merged MOS-Triggered SCR devices, the compact MOS-Triggered SCR devices has a lower trigger voltage, higher turn-on speed, lower overshoot voltage lower turn-on resistance and higher failure current which makes it more suitable for nanometer CMOS ESD protection.