Design of high-voltage-tolerant power-rail ESD clamp circuit in low-voltage CMOS processes

Abstract

A new high-voltage-tolerant power-rail electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamp circuit with a special ESD detection circuit realized with only 1xVDD devices for 3xVDD-tolerant mixed-voltage I/O interfaces is proposed. The proposed power-rail ESD clamp circuit with excellent ESD protection effectiveness has been verified in a 0.13-mu m CMOS process with only 1.2-V devices.