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- Title
- Three-Dimensional Simulation Study of Low Voltage ((<)100V) Superjunction Lateral DMOS power transistors.
- Creator
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Garcia, Jhonatan, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Sundaram, Kalpathy, Fan, Deliang, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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A new revolutionary concept was presented two decades ago, known as (")semiconductor Superjunction (SJ) theory(") to enhance the trade-off relationship between speci?c on resistance, Rsp, and off-state breakdown voltage, BV, in medium to high voltages (more than 100 V) power MOSFETs. The SJ concept was ?rst applied and commercialized to vertical structures, but it hasn't been used yet in low voltage MOSFETs with lateral structures. This thesis provides a review of the most common structures,...
Show moreA new revolutionary concept was presented two decades ago, known as (")semiconductor Superjunction (SJ) theory(") to enhance the trade-off relationship between speci?c on resistance, Rsp, and off-state breakdown voltage, BV, in medium to high voltages (more than 100 V) power MOSFETs. The SJ concept was ?rst applied and commercialized to vertical structures, but it hasn't been used yet in low voltage MOSFETs with lateral structures. This thesis provides a review of the most common structures, principles and design techniques for discrete power MOSFETs. It also presents a simulation study of the application of these SJ concepts in the design of a Low Voltage SJ LDMOS transistor, using TCAD software. To make the device commercially feasible, this device design targets aggressive goals such as an off-state Breakdown Voltage of 60V with Rspof 20 miliohms per milimiter square. This study includes the analysis of the ?ow process for the fabrication of this transistor, using semiconductor technologies, and the simulation results, including Breakdown Voltage, on-state resistance, electric ?eld distribution among others simulation analysis.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006306, ucf:51600
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006306
- Title
- Design and characterization of system level electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection solutions.
- Creator
-
Xi, Yunfeng, Liou, Juin, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Sundaram, Kalpathy, Jin, Yier, Salcedo, Javier, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Electrostatic Discharges (ESD) are one of the main reliability threats in modern electronics. Design, implementation, and characterization of ESD and transient protection of these modern electronics are increasingly challenging due to the process, packaging and cost constraints. Growing communication between 'objects' to be sensed and controlled remotely is creating opportunities for greater integration with computer systems, resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefits...
Show moreElectrostatic Discharges (ESD) are one of the main reliability threats in modern electronics. Design, implementation, and characterization of ESD and transient protection of these modern electronics are increasingly challenging due to the process, packaging and cost constraints. Growing communication between 'objects' to be sensed and controlled remotely is creating opportunities for greater integration with computer systems, resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefits across existing and emerging network infrastructures. This tendency is driving an expansion in data communication as well as industrial applications environment. To keep up with the interconnectivity expansion, the industry requires new devices to support more effectively high speed signals processing over long distances and be able to reliably operate in harsh and noisy environments. Electrical over-stress transients caused by ESD or switching of inductive loads can corrupt data transmission and damage bus transceivers unless effective measures are taken to address the impact of such high energy transient stress conditions. Today's industry specifications for integrated circuits require 1kV HBM on all pins, but selected pins with direct contact to the external environment must comply with levels as high as 8kV for IEC 61000-4-2 and ISO 10605 standards. The rapid evolution of the handheld and mobile device market segment, dramatic increase of electronic content in automotive products, and substantial progress in industrial and medical applications created a new need for on-chip protection against system level ESD stresses. This PhD work investigates the impact of system-level type of ESD stress on components. Firstly, correlation factors between different ESD pulse types for different BEOL metal line topologies have been studied to support system level on-chip ESD design. The component level (HMM, HBM and TLP on wafer) and system level (IEC gun contact on package) ESD stresses were correlated followed by extraction of correlation factors between the IEC/HMM and TLP, as well as the HBM and TLP supported by analytical approximation. The major conclusions were verified using the thermal coupled mixed-mode simulations analysis. Secondly, operation of NLDMOS-SCR devices under the HMM and IEC air gap electrostatic discharge (ESD) stresses has been studied based on both the pulsed measurements and mixed-mode simulations. Under the IEC air gap testing, the devices are found to suffer the non-uniform multi-finger turn-on behavior and hence a relatively low passing level, while both the IEC contact and HMM stresses do not give rise to such an adversary effect and result in a considerably higher passing level. It is further shown that the non-uniform multi-finger turn-on effect depends on the stress pulse rise time. Such a dependency has also been examined and verified using the transmission line pulsing (TLP) technique with rise times ranging from 10 to 40ns. In the last section, a new silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) fabricated in a 30 V mixed-signal CDMOS (CMOS/DMOS) technology is presented. This device allows for robust EMI (electromagnetic interference) and ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection solution for high speed industrial interface applications operating in variable voltage swing range from -7V to +12V. This new SCR has reduced overshoot voltage and leakage current when electrically stressed under different pulse widths and temperatures. Analysis of the device physics is complemented via numerical TCAD mixed-mode simulations. A 200 x 200 (&)#181;m2 device designed in an annular configuration achieved (>) (&)#177; 8 kV IEC robustness by handling (>) (&)#177; 20 Amp of TLP current while clamping the voltage to (&)#177;3V within 2-nsec.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2016
- Identifier
- CFE0006199, ucf:51113
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006199
- Title
- Transient Safe Operating Area (TSOA) for ESD applications.
- Creator
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Malobabic, Slavica, Liou, Juin, Shen, Zheng, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Vinson, James, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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A methodology to obtain design guidelines for gate oxide input pin protection and high voltage output pin protection in Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) time frame is developed through measurements and Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD).A set of parameters based on transient measurements are used to define Transient Safe Operating Area (TSOA). The parameters are then used to assess effectiveness of protection devices for output and input pins.The methodology for input pins includes...
Show moreA methodology to obtain design guidelines for gate oxide input pin protection and high voltage output pin protection in Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) time frame is developed through measurements and Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD).A set of parameters based on transient measurements are used to define Transient Safe Operating Area (TSOA). The parameters are then used to assess effectiveness of protection devices for output and input pins.The methodology for input pins includes establishing ESD design targets under Charged Device Model (CDM) type stress in low voltage MOS inputs.The methodology for output pins includes defining ESD design targets under Human Metal Model (HMM) type stress in high voltage Laterally Diffused MOS (LDMOS) outputs. First, the assessment of standalone LDMOS robustness is performed, followed by establishment of protection design guidelines. Secondly, standalone clamp HMM robustness is evaluated and a prediction methodology for HMM type stress is developed based on standardized testing. Finally, LDMOS and protection clamp parallel protection conditions are identified.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2012
- Identifier
- CFE0004405, ucf:49363
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0004405
- Title
- RELIABILITY STUDY OF INGAP/GAAS HETEROJUNCTION BIPOLAR TRANSISTOR MMIC TECHNOLOGY BY CHARACTERIZATION, MODELING AND SIMULATION.
- Creator
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LIU, XIANG, Liou, Juin J., University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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Recent years have shown real advances of microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) for millimeter-wave frequency systems, such as wireless communication, advanced imaging, remote sensing and automotive radar systems, as MMICs can provide the size, weight and performance required for these systems. Traditionally, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) or InP based MMIC technology has dominated in millimeter-wave frequency applications because of their high fT and...
Show moreRecent years have shown real advances of microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) for millimeter-wave frequency systems, such as wireless communication, advanced imaging, remote sensing and automotive radar systems, as MMICs can provide the size, weight and performance required for these systems. Traditionally, GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) or InP based MMIC technology has dominated in millimeter-wave frequency applications because of their high fT and fmax as well as their superior noise performance. But these technologies are very expensive. Thus, for low cost and high performance applications, InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are quickly becoming the preferred technology to be used due to their inherently excellent characteristics. These features, together with the need for only one power supply to bias the device, make InGaP/GaAs HBTs very attractive for the design of high performance fully integrated MMICs. With the smaller dimensions for improving speed and functionality of InGaP/GaAs HBTs, which dissipate large amount of power and result in heat flux accumulated in the device junction, technology reliability issues are the first concern for the commercialization. As the thermally triggered instabilities often seen in InGaP/GaAs HBTs, a carefully derived technique to define the stress conditions of accelerated life test has been employed in our study to acquire post-stress device characteristics for the projection of long-term device performance degradation pattern. To identify the possible origins of the post-stress device behaviors observed experimentally, a two dimensional (2-D) TCAD numerical device simulation has been carried out. Using this approach, it is suggested that the acceptor-type trapping states located in the emitter bulk are responsible for the commonly seen post-stress base current instability over the moderate base-emitter voltage region. HBT-based MMIC performance is very sensitive to the variation of core device characteristics and the reliability issues put the limit on its radio frequency (RF) behaviors. While many researchers have reported the observed stress-induced degradations of GaAs HBT characteristics, there has been little published data on the full understanding of stress impact on the GaAs HBT-based MMICs. If care is not taken to understand this issue, stress-induced degradation paths can lead to built-in circuit failure during regular operations. However, detection of this failure may be difficult due to the circuit complexity and lead to erroneous data or output conditions. Thus, a practical and analytical methodology has been developed to predict the stress impacts on HBT-based MMICs. It provides a quick way and guidance for the RF design engineer to evaluate the circuit performance with reliability considerations. Using the present existing EDA tools (Cadance SpectreRF and Agilent ADS) with the extracted pre- and post-stress transistor models, the electrothermal stress effects on InGaP/GaAs HBT-based RF building blocks including power amplifier (PA), low-noise amplifier (LNA) and oscillator have been systematically evaluated. This provides a potential way for the RF/microwave industry to save tens of millions of dollars annually in testing costs. The world now stands at the threshold of the age of advanced GaAs HBT MMIC technology and researchers have been exploring here for years. The reliability of GaAs HBT technology is no longer the post-design evaluation, but the pre-design consideration. The successful and fruitful results of this dissertation provide methods and guidance for the RF designers to achieve more reliable RF circuits with advanced GaAs HBT technology in the future.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003904, ucf:48744
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003904
- Title
- LDMOS Power Transistor Design and Evaluation using 2D and 3D Device Simulation.
- Creator
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Salih, Aiman, Yuan, Jiann-Shiun, Sundaram, Kalpathy, Kapoor, Vikram, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The benefit of the super-junction (SJ) technique and the use of a floating P layer for low voltage (30 V) laterally double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) transistors are investigated in this thesis using Sentaurus TCAD simulation software. Optimizations to the SJ LDMOS were attempted such as adding a buffer layer to the device, but simulation and theoretical evidence point out that the benefits of the SJ technique are marginal at the 30 V application. A replacement for the SJ...
Show moreThe benefit of the super-junction (SJ) technique and the use of a floating P layer for low voltage (30 V) laterally double-diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) transistors are investigated in this thesis using Sentaurus TCAD simulation software. Optimizations to the SJ LDMOS were attempted such as adding a buffer layer to the device, but simulation and theoretical evidence point out that the benefits of the SJ technique are marginal at the 30 V application. A replacement for the SJ technique was sought, the floating P structure proved to be a good solution at the low voltage range due to its simpler cost effective process and performance gains achieved with optimization. A new idea of combining the floating P layer with shallow trench isolation is simulated yielding a low figure of merit (on state resistance (&)#215; gate charge) of 5.93 m?-nC.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006955, ucf:51673
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006955
- Title
- DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NOVELDEVICES FOR NEW GENERATION OF ELECTROSTATICDISCHARGE (ESD) PROTECTION STRUCTURES.
- Creator
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SALCEDO, Javier, Liou, Juin, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The technology evolution and complexity of new circuit applications involve emerging reliability problems and even more sensitivity of integrated circuits (ICs) to electrostatic discharge (ESD)-induced damage. Regardless of the aggressive evolution in downscaling and subsequent improvement in applications' performance, ICs still should comply with minimum standards of ESD robustness in order to be commercially viable. Although the topic of ESD has received attention industry-wide, the...
Show moreThe technology evolution and complexity of new circuit applications involve emerging reliability problems and even more sensitivity of integrated circuits (ICs) to electrostatic discharge (ESD)-induced damage. Regardless of the aggressive evolution in downscaling and subsequent improvement in applications' performance, ICs still should comply with minimum standards of ESD robustness in order to be commercially viable. Although the topic of ESD has received attention industry-wide, the design of robust protection structures and circuits remains challenging because ESD failure mechanisms continue to become more acute and design windows less flexible. The sensitivity of smaller devices, along with a limited understanding of the ESD phenomena and the resulting empirical approach to solving the problem have yielded time consuming, costly and unpredictable design procedures. As turnaround design cycles in new technologies continue to decrease, the traditional trial-and-error design strategy is no longer acceptable, and better analysis capabilities and a systematic design approach are essential to accomplish the increasingly difficult task of adequate ESD protection-circuit design. This dissertation presents a comprehensive design methodology for implementing custom on-chip ESD protection structures in different commercial technologies. First, the ESD topic in the semiconductor industry is revised, as well as ESD standards and commonly used schemes to provide ESD protection in ICs. The general ESD protection approaches are illustrated and discussed using different types of protection components and the concept of the ESD design window. The problem of implementing and assessing ESD protection structures is addressed next, starting from the general discussion of two design methods. The first ESD design method follows an experimental approach, in which design requirements are obtained via fabrication, testing and failure analysis. The second method consists of the technology computer aided design (TCAD)-assisted ESD protection design. This method incorporates numerical simulations in different stages of the ESD design process, and thus results in a more predictable and systematic ESD development strategy. Physical models considered in the device simulation are discussed and subsequently utilized in different ESD designs along this study. The implementation of new custom ESD protection devices and a further integration strategy based on the concept of the high-holding, low-voltage-trigger, silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) (HH-LVTSCR) is demonstrated for implementing ESD solutions in commercial low-voltage digital and mixed-signal applications developed using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) and bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) technologies. This ESD protection concept proposed in this study is also successfully incorporated for implementing a tailored ESD protection solution for an emerging CMOS-based embedded MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) sensor system-on-a-chip (SoC) technology. Circuit applications that are required to operate at relatively large input/output (I/O) voltage, above/below the VDD/VSS core circuit power supply, introduce further complications in the development and integration of ESD protection solutions. In these applications, the I/O operating voltage can extend over one order of magnitude larger than the safe operating voltage established in advanced technologies, while the IC is also required to comply with stringent ESD robustness requirements. A practical TCAD methodology based on a process- and device- simulation is demonstrated for assessment of the device physics, and subsequent design and implementation of custom P1N1-P2N2 and coupled P1N1-P2N2//N2P3-N3P1 silicon controlled rectifier (SCR)-type devices for ESD protection in different circuit applications, including those applications operating at I/O voltage considerably above/below the VDD/VSS. Results from the TCAD simulations are compared with measurements and used for developing technology- and circuit-adapted protection structures, capable of blocking large voltages and providing versatile dual-polarity symmetric/asymmetric S-type current-voltage characteristics for high ESD protection. The design guidelines introduced in this dissertation are used to optimize and extend the ESD protection capability in existing CMOS/BiCMOS technologies, by implementing smaller and more robust single- or dual-polarity ESD protection structures within the flexibility provided in the specific fabrication process. The ESD design methodologies and characteristics of the developed protection devices are demonstrated via ESD measurements obtained from fabricated stand-alone devices and on-chip ESD protections. The superior ESD protection performance of the devices developed in this study is also successfully verified in IC applications where the standard ESD protection approaches are not suitable to meet the stringent area constraint and performance requirement.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2006
- Identifier
- CFE0001213, ucf:46942
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0001213
