| 摘要 |
<p>Integrated circuits implemented in insulated gate (e.g., CMOS) technology have been protected from electrostatic discharge (ESD) by a metal gate field effect transistor. It has been recognized that a "parasitic" bipolar transistor exists in parallel with the metal gate device. Surprisingly, superior protection is obtained by omitting the metal gate, thereby relying only on the avalanche breakdown of the bipolar device for the opposite-polarity protection. It is postulated that the field effect of the metal gate device undesirably restricted the current flow in the prior art technique. The inventive technique may be advantageously implemented using a diode rather than a transistor as the protective element.</p> |
