Transmission line pulse properties for a bidirectional transient voltage suppression diode fabricated using low-temperature epitaxy

Based on low temperature epitaxy technology, a bidirectional transient voltage suppression (TVS) diode with abrupt multi-junctions was developed. The bidirectional triggering voltage of ±16 V was controlled by the thickness and dopant concentration in the multi-junctions using a reduced-pressure chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) process. The manufactured TVS diode showed a small leakage current density and dynamic resistance of less than 5.1 × 10^-14 A/µm² and 1 O, respectively, which could be associated with the epitaxially grown abrupt multijunctions. The transmission line pulse (TLP) analysis results demonstrated that the bidirectional TVS diodes were capable of withstanding a peak pulse current of up to ±20 A or ±1.02 × 10^-3 A/µm², which is equivalent to ±40 kV of the human body model (HBM) and ±12 kV of IEC61000-4-2 (IEC). Nevertheless, the electrostatic discharge (ESD) design window showed that bidirectional TVS diodes meet IEC level 4 standard ESD protection requirements (8 kV in contact discharge). In addition, because of the bidirectional structure, the TVS devices exhibited a small capacitance of 4.9 pF, which confirms that the TVS diode can be used for protecting high data rate communication lines (over 500 Mbps) from ESD shock.