Systematic transient characterisation of graphene NEMS switch for ESD protection

作者：Chen Qi; Ng Jimmy; Li Cheng; Lu Fei; Wang Chenkun; Zhang Feilong; Xie Ya Hong; Wang Albert^*

来源：Micro & Nano Letters, 2017, 12(11): 875-880.

DOI：10.1049/mnl.2017.0420

• graphene
• electrostatic devices
• transmission lines
• switches
• electrostatic discharge
• nanoelectromechanical devices
• systematic transient characterisation
• integrated circuit
• low-parasitic on-chip electrostatic discharging protection
• in-Si PN-junction-based ESD protection
• above-IC graphene nanoelectromechanical system
• current handling capability
• heat handling capability
• gNEMS ESD switch
• transmission line pulse measurement
• TLP measurement
• human body model ESD protection

Integrated circuits (ICs) require robust and low-parasitic on-chip electrostatic discharging (ESD) protection. Compared to conventional in-Si PN-junction-based ESD protection structures, a novel above-IC graphene nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) switch (gNEMS) ESD protection structure features low parasitic effects and superior current and heat handling capability. This work reports a systematic transient characterisation of gNEMS ESD switches by transmission line pulse (TLP) measurement for human body model ESD protection, revealing transient ESD discharging behaviours related to device dimensions and TLP pulse shapes. It provides practical design guidelines for using gNEMS switch as on-chip ESD protection for ICs. Unlike in-Si ESD protection structures, the new gNEMS ESD switch devices can be made in the back-end-of-line of ICs through three-dimensional heterogeneous integration.

• 出版日期2017-11