Designing a Diode to handle higher voltages (>0.7V) through manipulation of STI and N+, P+ diffusion wells

By Joseph Gozum & Martin Liu

During my third year of undergraduate school at university, I took a class on designing integrated circuits (IC) and systems and how to design-for-reliability. Typically, this meant protecting ICs from electrostatic discharge (ESD).

For the final project in the class, my partner and I redesigned the typical silicon diode that usually experiences breakdown at 0.7V and increased that voltage breakdown level. Creating a diode with a greater breakdown voltage allows it to be used in more cases with higher voltage requirements. We manipulated the diffusion wells of the diode which had the affect of increasing the breakdown voltage.