Very small snapback silicon-controlled rectifier for electrostatic discharge protection in 28 nm processing

•A novel SCR-based device is proposed to meet the ESD design window in 28-nm process.•An ESD operation window of less than 1 V is achieved by changing the parameter in the proposed device.•TCAD simulation is carried out to demonstrate the underlying physical mechanisms.

A novel silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR)-based device with very small snapback is proposed in this paper. New features including an embedded gate-to-VDD PMOS (GDPMOS) and lateral n-p-n BJT are used to achieve low trigger and high holding voltages suitable for electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection of 28-nm CMOS technology with very narrow ESD operation windows. Measured results show an ESD operation window of less than 1 V. TCAD simulation is also carried out to demonstrate the underlying physical mechanisms.