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ESD and Latch Up Damage, Issues with Si-Ge devices

ESD and Latch Up Damage, Issues with Si-Ge devices image #1
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) tests to IEC 61000-4-2 at more than ±4 kilovolts (kV) reliably caused permanent damage to Silicon-Germanium (Si-Ge) integrated circuits (ICs) in a range of microwave wireless datacommunication products.
‘Latch-Up’ caused by power rail undershoot appeared to be the cause of the problem, and a reliable solution was found.Neither this failure mode in Si-Ge devices, nor the solution presented here, has – to the author’s knowledge – been previously reported.
Si-Ge device technology is at present mostly targeted at microwave wireless
applications, which includes the Internet of Things (IOT), and is a candidate for much faster digital processing in the future.
Accordingly, in the near future, Si-Ge may well become a commonplace technology, and significant problems caused by the latch-up failure mode described in this article could become widespread,unless prevented by the use of the techniques described here, or other techniques.

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