CAD-Based ESD Design Methodology is Critical to Emerging Technologies (Invited)

On-chip ESD protection design will be more and more challenging for emerging IC technologies and complex chips. This paper reviews a few proven CAD-based on-chip ESD protection design methodologies, including TCAD-based mixed-mode ESD protection design method, 3D TCAD ESD simulation to address the ESD layout design sensitivity, multi-stimuli ESD simulation technique, ECAD-based circuit-level ESD protection design approach, ESD-IC co-design technique, and novel CAD algorithm and flow for full-chip ESD protection circuit physical design verification. Future ESD protection design perspectives are highlighted.