Over the last few decades, the susceptibility of integrated circuits to electrostatic discharge (ESD) induced damages has justified the use of dedicated on-chip protection circuits. Design of robust protection circuits remains a challenging task because ESD failure mechanisms have become more acute as device dimensions continue to shrink. A lack of understanding of the ESD phenomena coupled with the increased sensitivity of smaller devices and time-to-market demands has led to a trial-and-error approach to ESD-protected circuit design. Improved analysis capabilities and a systematic design approach are essential to accomplish the challenging task of providing adequate protection to core circuit(s). The design of ESD protection circuitry for RFIC's has been relatively slow to evolve, compared to their digital counterparts, and is now emerging as a new design challenge in RF and high-speed mixed-signal IC development. Sub-circuits which are not embedded in a single System-on-Chip (SOC), such as RF Power amplifiers (PAs), are of particular concern as they are more susceptible to the various ESD events. This thesis presents the development of integrated ESD protection circuitry for two RFIC Power Amplifier designs. A prototype PA for 2.4 GHz Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) applications was redesigned to provide protection to the RF input and the PA Control pins. A relatively new technique known as the L-C tank approach was used to protect the RFinput while a standard diode ring approach was used to protect the control line. The protection techniques studied were subsequently extended to a completely protected three-stage PA targeting 1.9 GHz Digitally Enhanced Cordless Telephone (DECT) applications. An on-chip shunt-L-series-C input matching network was used to provide ESD protection to the input pin of the DECT PA. A much more area efficient (as compared to the diode ring technique) Zener diode approach was used to protect the control and signal lines. The PA's RF performance was virtually unaffected by the addition of the protection circuits. Both PAs were designed in a commercially available 0.5 ìm SiGe-HBT process. The partially protected WLAN PA was fabricated and packaged in a 3mm x 3mm Fine Pitch Quad Flat Package FQFP-N 12 Lead package and had a measured ESD protection rating of ± 1kV standard Human Body Model (HBM) ESD test. The simulated DECT PA demonstrated +1.5kV/-4kV HBM performance. / Master of Science

Le carbure de silicium (SiC) possède plusieurs propriétés exceptionnelles comme une large bande interdite, un champ électrique critique et une vitesse de saturation des porteurs élevée pour remplacer le silicium (Si) dans des domaines de fonctionnement jusque-là inaccessibles avec le Si. Un nombre important de démonstrateurs des composants de puissance en SiC faisant état de performances remarquables ainsi que la disponibilité commerciale des composants en SiC confirment la maturité de la filière SiC et montrent les progrès technologiques réalisés au cours des dernières années. Cependant, il existe peu d’études sur les coefficients d’ionisation du SiC, lesquels sont pourtant indispensables pour prévoir précisément la tenue en tension des composants de puissance en SiC. Ce travail contribue donc à mieux déterminer ces coefficients. Pour cela, un bon nombre de diodes spécialement conçues pour la détermination des coefficients d’ionisation du SiC par la technique OBIC (Optical Beam Induced Current) ont été réalisées sur différents wafers de SiC-4H et de SiC-6H, deux polytypes courant du SiC. Cette technique repose sur un faisceau de laser ultraviolet qui génère des paires électrons-trous dans la zone de charge d’espace d’une diode sous test. La mesure du courant résultant permet d’accéder aux coefficients d’ionisation. A partir des mesures OBIC sur les diodes réalisées, nous avons pu déduire les coefficients pour ces deux polytypes du SiC. Plus particulièrement, les coefficients d’ionisation du SiC-4H sont déterminés dans une large gamme de champ électrique grâce aux mesures sur les différents dopages. Les paramètres des coefficients déterminés dans ce travail peuvent être utilisés en conception de dispositifs haute tension pour prédire plus précisément l’efficacité de leur protection périphérique. / Silicon carbide (SiC) has several exceptional properties as a wide band-gap, a high critical electric field and a high saturation velocity of carriers to replace silicon (Si) in the applications previously inaccessible with Si. A significant number of SiC power devices showing outstanding performances and the commercial availability of SiC devices confirm the maturity of SiC industry and show the SiC technological advances in recent years. However, there are few studies on the ionization coefficients in SiC, which nevertheless essential to accurately predict the breakdown voltage of SiC power devices. This work contributes to better determine these coefficients. For this, numerous diodes which are specifically designed for the determination of ionization coefficients in SiC by using OBIC (Optical Beam Induced Current) technique were realized on different wafers of 4H-SiC and 6H-SiC, two usual polytypes of SiC. This technique relies on an ultraviolet laser beam which generates electron-hole pairs in the space charge region of a diode under test. The resulting current measurement provides access to the ionization coefficients. From OBIC measurements performed on the diodes, we were able to deduce the ionization coefficients for the both polytypes of SiC. In particular, the ionization coefficients for 4H-SiC are determined in a wide range of electric field through measurements on devices with different doping level. The parameters of ionization coefficients determined in this work can be used in design of high voltage devices to predict more accurately the efficiency of periphery protections.