Tunnel Field-Effect Transistor Triggered Silicon-Controlled Rectifier

In this article, a tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) triggered silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) device is proposed. A TFET is embedded into the SCR enabling an early carrier’s transportation through the n-well/p-well reverse-biased junction. This accelerates the junction breakdown and helps to establish the SCR’s positive feedback regeneration. The applications of the TFET-triggered SCR (TTSCR) in electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection are explored and the electrical characteristics are investigated. Moreover, the impact of the device structure on the device performance is discussed. The principle of the proposed device is verified using technology computer-aided design (TCAD) simulation. The simulation results show that compared to the prevalent diode-triggered SCR, the proposed device has a small layout area, a low leakage current, and a low overshoot voltage.