A Novel Clamp Based ESD Protection Structure for High Power RF Ports in GaAs pHEMT Process

The article presents a novel method of protecting RF ports designed to handle high (>30dBm) power levels. An Enhancement mode (E-mode) pHEMT clamp consists of Field effect transistor (FET) with a resistor connected between gate and source. Our design consists of two such clamps connected in back to back configuration. The structure was connected to the Transmit (TX) port of a WiFi front end module (WiFi FEM). Transmission line pulsing (TLP) and Human Body Model (HBM) testing was used to characterize the clamp. The low capacitance (<100fF) along with high trigger voltage (±21V) makes this clamp a suitable candidate for protecting high power RF ports.