Quantifying a simple antenna design rule

Charging damage from plasma processing can be reduced through process architecture and plasma hardware and process optimization, but not all damage can be prevented. Antenna area ratio design rules are commonly used in the semiconductor industry to ensure that the remaining charging does not damage circuits. A procedure for defining and quantifying simple antenna design rules is shown in this paper. In a case study, poly and metal antenna area ratios of 300:1 are chosen as the design rule maximum. The limitations of these design rules are also discussed.