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PROTECTION PRODUCTS
SI96-11
Surging Ideas
TVS Diode Application Note
Revision 9/2000
ESD Threat to Semiconductor Devices
Although the ESD pulse contains little energy, the
extremely fast rise time and high power can cause
semiconductor devices to fail. As IC chips become
smaller, denser, and more complex, their susceptibility
to ESD increases. Included in this list are Bipolar,
CMOS, BICMOS, GaAs, and Schottky devices. As
these semiconductors are designed into systems, the
ESD susceptibility of the system hardware increases
proportionally.
Catastrophic destruction of semiconductor devices
may occur from arcing or heating. Arcing occurs as a
result of the high static potential of ESD. Heating
occurs as the result of the discharge current in an ESD
event. The heating energy is proportional to the
square of the discharge current. Damage occurs when
the temperature of the region that is dissipating the
ESD pulse reaches a critical value (such as the melting
point of silicon). Laboratory tests have shown that
semiconductors may fail after one very high discharge
or may fail due to the cumulative effects of several
discharges of lower potential.
Failure mechanisms in integrated circuits as a result of
ESD include:
1. Oxide Punchthrough : This is the predominant ESD
induced failure mechanism in MOS devices. Ex-
treme over-voltage across the semiconductor oxide
exceeds the dielectric breakdown strength. The
thinner the oxide, the higher the susceptibility to
ESD. Overheating and eventual shorting result.
OXIDE PUNCH-THROUGH
MOS devices are particularly vulnerable due to
their low breakdown voltages.
2. Junction Burnout : Junction burnout is caused by
injection of an ESD transient of sufficient energy
and duration to initiate secondary breakdown. The
result is high reverse leakage or a total short.
JUNCTION BURNOUT
3. Metallization Burnout : Metallization burnout
occurs upon injection of an ESD pulse of sufficient
magnitude and duration to melt the metal due to
resistive (Joule) heating. This results in an open
circuit on the device. Localized melting of device
metallization can occur as a secondary failure
mechanism to junction melting and shorting.
METALLIZATION BURNOUT
4. Parametric Degradation (Latent Failure) : ESD
damaged parts may not fail catastrophically. These
parts may show increased leakage and will con-
tinue to degrade until premature failure occurs.
Although these parts are still functional, they will
likely fail early in the field.