Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 29th June 2025, 01:25:01am CEST
Spark Length and Spark Resistance Characterization for Air Breakdown Simulation Validation
Yang Xu1, Jennifer Kitaygorsky2, David Pommerenke1
1Graz University of Technology, Austria; 2Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc. USA
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause critical failures in electronic systems, making accurate simulation and modeling essential for reliability assessment. However, a key challenge in ESD simulation is the precise characterization of spark length and time-varying spark resistance in air discharge events. To address this and establish a reference measurement dataset for validating air discharge simulations, a measurement method was developed, supported by a test system with control over discharge path impedance, voltage, humidity, and approach speed. The system achieved spark length accuracy within 20 µm and captured time-varying spark resistance up to 30 ns. Simulations showed good agreement with measurements, though refinements are needed to mitigate ringing and improve resistance estimation. This setup offers a straightforward yet effective platform for validating air discharge models, bypassing the complexities of traditional ESD gun testing.
Opportunities to improve ESD protection simulation based on voltage-dependent dynamic model
Lucas Kemystetter1,2, Fabrice Caignet1, Guillaume Mejecaze2, Alexandre Boyer1, Frédéric Puybaret2, François Ruffat1
1LAAS CNRS, France; 2CEA GRAMAT, France
Dynamic model of ESD protection devices presents many advantages to simulate the response of these components when they are submitted to very high-level transient impulsions such as EMP residue. However, a major issue with these models is that they are defined for a specific operating point and in many cases the operating point of components can change during EMP event. In this article, a way to improve dynamic simulation by building voltage dependent RLC equivalent models will be explored to overcome this limitation and simulate complex circuit such as a snapback TVS in parallel to a capacitor.
Temperature dependence of Harmonic Distortion on TVS Structures
Gregor Florian Böhm1, Leonhard Petzel1, Steffen Holland2, David Johannes Pommerenke1
1Graz University of Technology, Austria; 2Nexperia GmbH Germany
This study investigates the temperature-dependent non-linear behavior of TVS structures by measuring and simulating harmonic distortion.
Motivated by simulation and measurement, we identified two sources for this temperature dependency.
First, due to the highly temperature-dependent leakage current, we suggest that a temperature shift may change internal DC potentials, which can explain a shift in harmonic levels.
Secondly, we observed that non-linear junction capacitance changes with temperature. We suggest that these two effects may explain the observed dependency on temperature.
In order to measure separate effects, we measured on custom TVS test structures.
Efficient Approach for System-level ESD Simulation Including Secondary Discharge
1Huwin, Korea, Republic of (South Korea); 2SL corporation, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)
This paper presents a methodology for performing efficient system-level electrostatic discharge (ESD) simulations, with an emphasis on analyzing secondary discharges. The proposed method models air discharge by combining circuit simulations and fluid-based plasma solver to simulate secondary discharge and plasma phenomena. The impedance model of the device under test (DUT) is extracted in the form of S-parameters for application in circuit simulations, and the ESD injection voltage is analyzed in the time domain. An ESD discharge is modelled by incorporating a non-linear arc resistance model, and the ESD injection voltage is extracted through transient simulations. By applying a circuit model of each component in the DUT, extracted through the PEEC solver, and the ESD injection voltage obtained through the fluid-based plasma solver, a system-level circuit simulation is performed. The effect of ESD on the entire system is analyzed to identify the cause of malfunction in the DUT. This research is expected to improve the understanding of air discharge phenomena and contribute to efficient system-level ESD vulnerability analysis and countermeasures.
