Four-Bit Transient-To-Digital Converter With A Single Rc-Based Detection Circuit For System-Level Esd Protection

A novel on-chip four-bit transient-to-digital converter with a single RC-based detection for system-level electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection design is proposed in this paper. The proposed transient to digital converter is designed to detect ESD-induced transient disturbances and transfer different ESD voltages into digital codes under system-level ESD tests. This work is simulated in a 65-nm CMOS process using a 2.5 V supply voltage. The simulation results show the correctness of the circuit function and effectively distinguish different voltage disturbances.