Wolfgang Soldner

RF ESD protection strategies: Codesign vs. low-C protection

The present work is focussed on the trade off between conventional RF ESD protection concepts optimized in terms of capacitive load and the frequently discussed RF ESD codesign idea with ESD protection skilfully integrated into RF circuit design. A narrow and a broadband RF test circuit were developed to put the benchmark on a firm basis. RF and ESD experiments are discussed, showing where the higher effort for the codesign approach starts to pay off.

A 10GHz Broadband Amplifier with Bootstrapped 2kV ESD Protection

A phase-corrected bootstrap circuit for active capacitance compensation of a low-C ESD-protection element is discussed. A broadband 2kV-ESD-protected 10GHz amplifier fabricated in a 90nm CMOS process serves as a test vehicle. Inductive peaking compensates for the intrinsic phase shift of the multi-stage bootstrap circuit.

A Dedicated TLP Set-Up to Investigate the ESD Robustness of RF Elements and Circuits

This work describes the development of a combined RF-TLP test set-up. It alternates between pulsed high current characterization and scattering parameter measurements up to 10 GHz in order to investigate the influence of the stress pulses on the RF behaviour of the DUT. As an example, the high current behaviour of a broad band amplifier circuit is analyzed.