ESD (Circuits and Devices) || Off-Chip Drivers (OCD) and ESD

✍ Scribed by Voldman, Steven H.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 352 KB
• Edition: 1
• Category: Article
• ISBN: 0470847549
• DOI: 10.1002/0470033479.ch6

✦ Synopsis

6 Off-Chip Drivers (OCD) and ESD

6.1 OFF-CHIP DRIVERS (OCD)

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) design of a transmitter circuit, also known as OCD, is a fundamental piece of providing ESD protection for a semiconductor chip design. In system environments, OCD networks transmit the signals between semiconductor chips as well as from the semiconductor system to outside of the system. These semiconductor chips can have different power supply voltages, different technology generations, and different technology types; in this environment, it involves both mixed-signal and mixed-voltage interface conditions. Additionally, standards are established for signal transmission to allow standardization of the signal levels being transmitted between logic, memory, analog, and other support circuitry. At the same time, there are also application requirements. These requirements can include the following concepts:

Power supply-to-power supply sequence independence.

Input pin-to-power rail sequence independence. ''Power boundary'' conditions.

Cold sparing requirements.

Fail safe requirements. ''Hot socket'' or ''hot plug'' requirements.

The first concept of power supply-to-power supply sequence independence is the requirement that there are not sequencing conditions on the states and rates of the different power supply within a given chip or system; the second condition is the same condition that applies between the signal pins and any power supply rail. The third condition, ''power boundary constraints'' is a general concept of power flow in or out of any section of a system ESD: Circuits and Devices