A Novel ESD Protection Circuit for Passive RFID Transponder

This paper presents silicon proved ESD protection circuit for RFID transponder using 180nm CMOS process. The circuit can also be reused for the functions of rectifier and amplitude limiter. Such method not only reduces RFID transponder's area but also enhances the ESD level remarkably. The test results show that it can provide 8kV human body mode (HBM) ESD protection ability which is especially useful during the manufacturing, transporting and packaging of RFID tag chip.