ESD protection circuit sustaining high ESD stress

摘要

A substrate-triggered ESD protection component having dummy gate structures. The ESD protection component includes a bipolar junction transistor (BJT), a substrate-triggering region to provide triggering current and a dummy gate structure. The BJT comprises a collector. The dummy gate structure has a poly-silicon gate adjacent to the collector and the substrate-triggering region. The emitter of the BJT is coupled to a power line, the collector is coupled to a pad, and the substrate-triggering region is coupled to an ESD detection circuit. During normal circuit operations, a base of the BJT is coupled with the power line through the ESD detection circuit to keep the BJT off. When an ESD event occurs between the pad and the power line, a triggering current is provided to the substrate-triggering region by the ESD detection circuit to trigger on the BJT and release ESD current.