Study and Verification on the Latch-Up Path Between I/O pMOS and N-Type Decoupling Capacitors in 0.18- $\mu$ m CMOS Technology

On-chip decoupling capacitors often formed by varactor or nMOS have been widely used to shunt the power-line noise in integrated-circuit products. Because the N+ cathode of these capacitors is connected to ground, an unexpected latch-up path between I/O pMOS and n-type decoupling capacitors may be accidentally triggered on. In this paper, the non-typical latchup path between I/O pMOS and n-type decoupling capacitors was investigated in 0.18-μm 1.8/3.3-V CMOS technology. The measurement results from the silicon chip with split test structures have verified that the n-type decoupling capacitor near the I/O pMOS can cause a high risk of latch-up. Therefore, the layout rules between the decoupling capacitor and I/O devices should be carefully defined to prevent the occurrence of such an unexpected latch-up path.