RF ESD protection strategies: Codesign vs. low-C protection

The present work is focussed on the trade-off between conventional RF ESD protection concepts optimized in terms of capacitive load and the frequently discussed RF ESD codesign idea with ESD protection skilfully integrated into RF circuit design. A narrow and a broadband RF test circuit were developed to put the benchmark on a firm basis. RF and ESD experiments are discussed, showing where the higher effort for the codesign approach starts to pay off.