Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) is a challenging issue with today's
integrated circuit designs. Scaling and new technology features make
meeting ESD requirements a difficult proposition. Furthermore, the
variety of ESD standards can make meeting the requirements a confusing
proposition. Fundamentally, ICs need to be robust against damage. In
this course, we will cover the physics and models, how semiconductor
processes affect ESD, the impact of advanced and future technologies on
meeting ESD requirements, basic ESD circuits and how to design them, how
to design input/output (I/O) networks to be robust to ESD, some case
studies, and common ESD design tools. By taking this course, technology
and design engineers will gain insight into ESD and how to design
technologies and circuits to be robust to ESD.