ESD - A PERVASIVE RELIABILITY CONCERN FOR IC TECHNOLOGIES

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is considered a major reliability threat to integrated circuit (IC) technologies. A review of the ESD phenomena along with the test methods, the appropriate on-chip protection techniques, and the impact of process technology advances from CMOS to BiCMOS on the ESD sensitivity of IC protection circuits, are presented. The present status of understanding the ESD failure physics and the current approaches for modeling are also discussed This overview paper deals with several aspects of ESD from the point of view of the test, design, product, and reliability engineers.