A review of HVI technology

The reduction of breakdown voltage (BV) influenced by high voltage interconnection (HVI) is a key problem in power integrated circuit, which essentially is that the modulation of electric field distribution at the device surface caused by HVI. In this paper, we review the developments of the methods to shield HVI including thick insulating film technology, field reduction layer technology, field plate technology and self-shielding technology. The four kinds of HVI technologies prevent BV degradation from the introduced adverse charge induced by interconnections in different ways. Thick insulting film technology increases the distance between the HVI and surface of silicon. Field reduction layer technology uses additional doping layers with optimized impurity concentration to enhance the depletion of the drift region under HVI. Field plate technology shields the influence of HVI with various field plate structures. Self-shielding technology makes HVI avoid crossing over high voltage junction terminal (HVJT), thus no additional shielding structure is needed. The divided reduced surface field (RESURF) technology solves the leakage current in the self-shielding structure.