NANOWIRE CROSSBAR SWITCH ESD PROTECTION MECHANISM AND CIRCUIT

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The objective of this research is to develop non-traditional Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) protection mechanisms and structures, using novel nanowire crossbar array and nano mechanical switch mechanisms, for nanoscale integrated circuits (IC). The approach is to investigate new nanowire switching ESD discharging mechanism, to fabricate and characterize nano crossbar switch arrays, to explore CMOS-compatible fabrication flow and to develop new modeling techniques.Intellectual Merits: ESD failure is the most devastating IC reliability problem in sub-100nm regime that causes the industry billions of dollars annually. On-chip ESD protection is hence required to protect ICs against ESD damage. ESD failure and protection involves very complex multi-coupling effects. As IC technologies continue to shrink, ESD-induced leakage and mis-triggering effect at GHz operation, inherent to its traditional transistor-type protection mechanism, become intolerable. It is hence imperative to develop novel ESD protection mechanisms and structures. This project is to develop completely new nanowire crossbar array and nano mechanical switch based ESD protection mechanisms and structures, which intends to replace the decade-long traditional ESD protection mechanism, therefore to eliminate the ESD-induced leakage and mis-triggering problems. Broader Impacts: Success of this project will deliver the first nanowire crossbar array and nano mechanical switch ESD protection mechanisms and structures for next generation IC technologies at nanoscale. The new ESD protection solutions are critical to finally resolving the grand IC reliability challenge at nano nodes. NSF support of this research enables the proposed international-academia-industry collaboration activities that greatly benefit American students, the semiconductor industry, the academia and the American society.