Design of a Gate Diode Triggered SCR for Dual-Direction High-Voltage ESD Protection

A novel gate diode triggered silicon-controlled rectifier (GDTSCR) with dual-direction high-voltage (HV) electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection and a low snap-back voltage is proposed and investigated. Compared to conventional MOS triggered SCR (MTSCR), the GDTSCR has two gate diodes and one additional n-p-n. Superior to the MTSCR, the GDTSCR exhibits a high holding voltage of 15 V, a small trigger voltage of 17 V, and a strong ESD robustness of 6000 V in an area of $1600~\mu \text{m}^{\textsf {2}}$ , benefitting from the gate-controlled field effect diodes and the weakened regenerative feedback of the SCR. As such, the proposed GDTSCR is an attractive device for constructing effective and latch-up immune solutions for HV ESD protection.