This book introduces a new approach to model and predict substrate
parasitic failures in integrated circuits with standard circuit design
tools.
The injection of majority and minority carriers in the substrate is a
recurring problem in smart power ICs containing high voltage, high
current switching devices besides sensitive control, protection and
signal processing circuits.
The injection of parasitic charges leads to the activation of substrate
bipolar transistors. This book explores how these events can be
evaluated for a wide range of circuit topologies. To this purpose, new
generalized devices implemented in Verilog-A are used to model the
substrate with standard circuit simulators. This approach was able to
predict for the first time the activation of a latch-up in real circuits
through post-layout SPICE simulation analysis.
- Discusses substrate modeling and circuit-level simulation of parasitic
bipolar device coupling effects in integrated circuits;
- Includes circuit back-annotation of the parasitic lateral n-p-n and
vertical p-n-p bipolar transistors in the substrate;
- Uses Spice for simulation and characterization of parasitic bipolar
transistors, latch-up of the parasitic p-n-p-n structure, and
electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection devices;
- Offers design guidelines to reduce couplings by adding specific
protections.