characterization, modeling, and design of esd protection circuits

1.6. Outline and Contributions 13
Applications of 2D device simulation to the study of ESD are presented in Chapter 3,
starting with a general discussion of simulator features important to ESD modeling and
then delineating specific examples. A review of some previous ESD simulation work is
also given. Chapter 4 describes the calibration of the simulator ESD models and presents
the results of simulations which use these models. Simulation results are compared to TLP
experiments, and an example of circuit design using transmission-line pulsing and
simulation models is described. In Chapter 5 the concepts of ESD circuit design
methodology are re-addressed and developed in detail. Key issues include correlation of
TLP and HBM withstand levels, identifying critical discharge paths, and applying designof-experiments
models to transistor optimization. Chapter 6 reviews the contributions of
the thesis and discusses future work as well as the limitations of 2D device simulation in
studying ESD. The principles of the curve-tracing technique and a user’s manual for the
curve-tracing program are given in an appendix.