Compact Inverter-Triggered SCR for ESD Protection in Broadband Communication Circuits

This work presents a silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) design optimized for broadband electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection in high-speed communication interfaces. Fabricated in a 0.18-μm CMOS process, the proposed circuit employs a power-clamp-based trigger mechanism to achieve a reduced turn-on voltage without increasing layout complexity. To ensure superior signal transparency and impedance matching, an inductor is integrated above the SCR structure to compensate for the parasitic capacitance from the SCR device. Experimental results confirm that the device has an HBM robustness of up to 2.1 kV and maintains a signal bandwidth of 60 GHz, validating its suitability for advanced communication systems.