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SCAA124 – April 2015

Latch-Up
Marty Johnson, Roger Cline, Scott Ward, Joe Schichl
ABSTRACTThis document describes and discusses the topic of CMOS Latch-Up ranging from theory to testing ofproducts. The recently proposed modifications to JEDEC standard JESD78 are discussed along with
progress for making it more analog friendly with respect to special pin functions and/or high voltage
requirements.

1
2
3

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2
Latch-Up Testing Methods.................................................................................................. 4
References ................................................................................................................... 9
List of Figures

1

Cross-Section of a CMOS Inverter ........................................................................................ 3

2

Lateral NPN .................................................................................................................. 3

3

Cross-Section With Guard Rings Included ............................................................................... 44

Positive Current Pulse Waveform ......................................................................................... 5

5

Negative Current Pulse Waveform ....................................................................................... 5

6

Over-Voltage Stress Waveform ............................................................................................ 5

7

Typical Voltage Regulator Application Set-Up for Latch-Up Stress ................................................... 7

8

Typical Voltage Regulator Set-Up for Latch-Up Stress ................................................................. 7

9

Product With Multiple Regulators Controlled by SPI ................................................................... 8

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Introduction

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1

Introduction
Latch-Up today is still a potentially potent source of failure in the qualification flow at manufacturers and in
the customer application. As IC’s get smaller, so do the dimensions between transistors within an IC.
Transistor spacing can create conditions for Latch-Up. Texas Instruments is influencing the industry toconsider more complete methods to stress Latch-Up in all products but in particular, analog products. The
goal at Texas Instruments is to continuously improve the quality and reliability of the products.

1.1

What is Latch-Up?
Latch-Up is a condition where a low impedance path is created between a supply pin and ground. Thiscondition is caused by a trigger (current injection or overvoltage), but once activated, the low impedance
path remains even after the trigger is no longer present. This low impedance path may cause system
upset or catastrophic damage due to excessive current levels. The Latch-Up condition typically requires a
power cycle to eliminate the low impedance path. CMOS and BiCMOS circuits use NMOS and PMOS
transistors to create the circuit functions. In the design of the CMOS integrated circuit, the proximity of thePN junctions that form the NMOS and PMOS transistors create inherent parasitic transistors and diodes.
These parasitic structures create PNPN Thyristors, also called silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs).
Excursions (overshoots and undershoots) outside the normal operating voltage and current levels cantrigger PNPN Thyristors and may cause Latch-Up. Latch-Up is not a risk if the voltage and current levels
applied to the device adhere to the absolute maximum ratings.

1.2

Latch-Up Model
Early in CMOS development, Latch-Up was recognized as a problem to be solved. Research anddevelopment into the causes led to several papers in the 1980’s discussing causes and methods to lessen
the influence of Latch-Up. The NMOS and PMOS circuits form parasitic PNPN structures that can betriggered when a current or voltage impulse is directed into an input, output or power supply.
Figure 1 shows a typical, simple, cross-section of a CMOS inverter in an N-Well, P- substrate, CMOS
process. The PMOS forms a parasitic vertical PNP from the P+ source/drain of the transistor (emitter), theN-Well (base) and the substrate (collector). A lateral NPN is formed from the N+ source/drain (emitter), Psubstrate (base) and the N-Well (collector). The resultant circuit describes a PNPN (as shown in Figure 2).
As an example, if a current impulse strikes the PMOS drain, the P+/ N-Well junction (Q1) becomesforward biased. If the impulse is high enough (sustainable for a sufficient length of time), the carriers
injected into the substrate cause a voltage drop across the substrate resistance. The bias across the P- /N+ (substrate to NMOS drain) in Q2 is then high enough to turn-on Q2. The Q2 collector current will thenflow into the base of Q1. At that time, the Latch-Up becomes self-sustaining, a positive feedback loop has
been formed. Only cessation of the power supply can stop the Latch-Up condition.
Temperature effects (external and internal to the product) can also influence the Latch-Up immunity of
products. As temperature increases, the substrate and well resistances rise allowing the bias to reach acritical value sooner. Also, the effective distance between the N+, P+ and N-Well diffusions narrows
allowing easier capture of excited carriers.

(1)

2

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Introduction

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Figure 1. Cross-Section of a CMOS Inverter
V DD

R NWELL
Q1
I/O
I/O
Q2

R SUB

GND

Figure 2. Lateral NPN

1.3

Mitigating Latch-Up
There are methods employed to reduce the possible onset of Latch-Up. Spacing of the elements of eachtransistor, diode, resistor and capacitor are now being controlled through process characterization anddesign rules to help minimize the effect of current or voltage pulses on the products. Additionally, guard
rings have been added around known radiators in the circuits or if spacing concerns are critical aroundindividual PMOS and NMOS transistors, diodes or substrate resistors. Guard rings act as injected carriersyphons allowing these carriers to flow to the supply or ground. Also, the use of substrate ties and welltaps act as excited carrier syphons and are guided by design rules for placement. These ties and taps arenecessary for Latch-Up immunity. Another very effective method of quenching Latch-Up is to use an EPI(epitaxial silicon) layer. The EPI layer is doped appropriately for the best transistor performance (morelightly doped than the remaining lower portion of the substrate that is highly doped). The highly doped
substrate directs majority carriers to ground and reflects minority carriers making the guard rings more
effective (see Figure 3). Even with these safeguards, there is a possibility of parasitic transistors in circuitsthat are not identified. These unidentified Latch-Up sources need to be identified; one way is a Latch-Up
stress test.

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Latch-Up Testing Methods

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Figure 3. Cross-Section With Guard Rings Included

2

Latch-Up Testing Methods
Latch-Up stress methods prior to the late 1980’s were accomplished on bench set-ups with the use of
curve tracers or other bench set-ups. In 1988, an industry team released the first Latch-Up standard,
JESD17. This standard proposed a method of characterization based mostly on digital CMOS circuit
concepts. In 1997, the JEDEC team proposed another Latch-Up standard (JESD78) that built on JESD17
adding more detail to the stress and giving a robustness criteria for the first time. JESD78 remains astandard mostly based on digital CMOS technology and test methods. The current revision, Revision D,
does not have a robustness criterion; it has reverted to being a characterization standard. Analog products
do not necessarily fit well into the methodology since there are generally specific bias values that workoutside a zero or one condition. There are efforts underway on the JEDEC Latch-Up team to add analog
methodology, which will likely be completed late in 2015.

2.1

Latch-Up Standard
The current Latch-Up standard, JESD78, stresses pins categorized by type. These types are input, output,
bi-directional (I/O), power supply and ground. Input, output and bi-directional pins, in most cases, receive
a current stress pulse. The power supply receives an over-voltage stress, a voltage pulse. The pulse
widths can be chosen from a range of values but most often in the industry, 2 ms to 10 ms is preferred.
The current pulse height typical values are 100 mA while the over-voltage is 1.5 x VMAX (operating).
Products requiring clocking or other timing signals can use test vectors in either a Latch-Up tester or an
ATE. Timing or pins receiving vectors generally are not stressed since the stress pulse may interfere withthe part set-up creating a false failure. Figure 4, Figure 5 and Figure 6 show the stress waveforms from
JESD78.

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Max. V supply

Stress current forcharacterization

GND
V supply PIN

TOS

TOS

90%

TOS

Max. Logic High **

tr

tf

tr
GND
PIN UNDER TESTTime
T1 ® T2
T4 ® T7
T4 ® T5
T5
T6

T4 T5T6

T2 T3

T1

T7

I trigger

Operation

Measure nominal I supply (Inom)
Cool down time (Tcool)
Wait time prior to I supply measurement. *Measure I supply
If any I supply ³ the failure criteria defined in 1.3, latch-up
has occurred and power must be removed from DUT.

Figure 4. Positive Current Pulse WaveformMax. V supply

Stress current forcharacterization
GND
V supply PIN
tf

tr
Min. Logic Low **

tr

TOS

PIN UNDER TEST
90%
TOS

T1

T4 T5 T6

T2 T3

T7

I triggerTime
T1 ® T2
T4 ® T7
T4 ® T5
T5
T6

Operation
Measure nominal I supply (Inom)
Cool down time (Tcool)
Wait time prior to I supply measurement. *Measure I supply
If any I supply ³ the failure criteria defined in 1.3, latch-up
has occurred and power must be removed from DUT.

Figure 5. Negative Current Pulse Waveform
Stress current forcharacterization

TOS

TOS

90%
Max. V supply

10%
tf

tr

tr

GND
V supply PIN

T1

T2

T3

T4

T5 T6

T7

I triggerTime
T1 ® T2
T4 ® T7
T4 ® T5
T5
T6

Operation
Measure nominal I supply (Inom)
Cool down time (Tcool)
Wait time prior to I supply measurement. *Measure I supply
If any I supply ³ the failure criteria defined in 1.3, latch-up
has occurred and power must be removed from there

Figure 6. Over-Voltage Stress Waveform
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2.2

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Current Injection Stress
When stressing products the goal is to stress in every combination of input bias conditions andsubsequent output conditions that can be achieved without disrupting the stability of the product. To start,
one needs to place the product into a known, stable state that has a reproducible INOM. With inputs high,all of the pins held high are exposed to a positive polarity current pulse. Any pins required to be low for
product stability are not stressed. The inputs that can switch to low are then pulsed with a negative pulse
and any pin held high for stability is not stressed. There may be pins held high or low for stability thatcannot tolerate a current pulse. Outputs depending on the output condition will have a pulsed current of
the same polarity. The high-Z condition is preferred, if possible, since it gives the opportunity to stress itwith both positive and negative pulses. Bi-directional pins will need to be configured in a specific state andthen stressed appropriately.

2.3

Over-Voltage Stress
The over-voltage stress test is set-up to determine the ability of the power supplies to withstand transient
voltages. For digital products, each input condition (high and low) must be checked by the over-voltage
test. The power supplies are then stressed with over-voltage values either at 1.5 x VMAX or MSV (seeFigure 6).

2.4

Signal Latch-Up
Similar to the Latch-Up description in Section 1.1, that defines a malfunction of the IC, generally, ashorting of the power supply to ground, Signal Latch-Up (sLU) is also a malfunction of the IC; however, ashorting of the signal to ground as opposed to the traditional shorting of the power supply to ground.
Latch-Up is detected by a sustained increase in ISUPPLY after the applicable stress is removed. Signal
Latch-Up does not manifest itself in a sustained increase in ISUPPLY, but rather detected in a sustained
increase in ISIGNAL after the applicable stress in removed. While Latch-Up is generally not a problem
associated with normal operation, Signal Latch-Up can be a problem associated with normal operation
depending on the signal application. During the design of signal ESD protection structures, there can beintentional SCRs employed that encourage selected parasitic PNPN diodes to trigger under an ESD event.
While ESD is an unpowered event, this is not a concern and actually desirable. However, during normal
operation since an intentional SCR could exist between a signal pin to ground and the signal pin could betied or driven to a “hi” state, care must be taken by using design rules on the product to limit effects of
Signal Latch-Up, thereby, mitigating the effect of excursion that could trigger the signal ESD SCR andeffectively short the signal to ground. If a signal pin is tied or driven to a “lo” state, then the signal voltage
is below the ESD SCR holding voltage and signal Latch-Up will not occur.

2.5

Analog Product Testing
As is noted in the Scope of JESD78,“As these technologies have evolved, it has been necessary to adjust this document to the realities ofcharacterization with limits not imagined when the first Latch-Up document was generated some 25 years
ago. Though it would be simpler to make the original limits of 1.5 times the maximum pin operating
voltage an absolute level of goodness, the possibilities of success at this level are limited by the very low
voltage technologies, and the medium and high voltage CMOS, BiCMOS and Bipolar technologies (>40
V). The concept of maximum stress voltage (MSV) allows the supplier to characterize Latch-Up in a waythat differentiates between Latch-Up and EOS. This revision will make it more transparent to the end userthat given the limits of certain technologies the subsequent Latch-Up characterizations are valid.”

2.5.1

Maximum Stress Voltage for Latch-Up (MSV)
Since the advent of the JEDEC standard, the testing methodology has been digital CMOS centric. Overthe years as power supply voltages increased, stressing at 1.5 x VMAX became increasingly difficult if not
impossible to do. Companies that produced high voltage products tested Latch-Up with levels less than
1.5 x VMAX. Stressing at less than 1.5 x VMAX was necessitated by the fact that transistor catastrophic
breakdowns would be breached. So, in 2010, the JEDEC Latch-Up team decided to bring JESD78 up tocommon practice and created a new term called Maximum Stress Voltage for Latch-Up (MSV). MSV isgenerally a number less than a catastrophic transistor breakdown voltage and generally greater than theabsolute maximum voltage (VABSMAX) listed in the device-specific data sheets.

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Since the introduction of MSV, there have been numerous questions about how to determine the MSV
value. MSV can be determined for each manufacturing process by either starting with one diode drop
above the VMAX and stepping the voltage up to catastrophic breakdown or choose a value near thecatastrophic breakdown based on process characterization. There are no fixed rules for determining MSV,
each user can determine and document the MSV as the standard is currently written. In an upcoming
revision of JESD78, there will be additional informative guidance for determining MSV.
2.5.2

Stressing Special Pins
Analog and mixed signal products may have a combination of pin functions that require some pins to betreated as digital pins and others as analog pins. Generally, the analog pins will have only one bias setting
to function properly, so, there is one stress to perform on those types of pins. The digital pins can havevectors and clocks and must be treated as described in JESD78. Analog and mixed signal products canalso have special function pins that can be difficult to know how to stress. Examples of special pins may
be LDO, PWM, BOOT, PHASE, HB, VCC and others. In general, these pins provide a bias to other pinson the same product or help regulate the product’s operation or provide bias to other devices. There isconsiderable debate on how to stress these pins. Some would like to test these pins as they are
configured in a normal application. Others want to stress them as either outputs as power supplies orinputs as power supplies. A JESD78 Latch-Up Sub-Team is working on the resolving this issue; theresults of this team’s activity will be in a future revision of the standard.
In this example, using a voltage regulator, Figure 7 shows a set-up that treats these pins as if they were in
a common application setting.

(SW) 82 (VIN)(BST) 73 (UVLO)(VCC) 64 (RON)(FB) 5+1 (GND)

22 nF

+
+

0.1 µF

Figure 7. Typical Voltage Regulator Application Set-Up for Latch-Up Stress

1 (GND)(SW) 82 (VIN)(BST) 73 (UVLO)(VCC) 64 (RON)(FB) 522 nF+

0.1 µF

Figure 8. Typical Voltage Regulator Set-Up for Latch-Up Stress
There are two pins that may have more than one way to be stressed: pins 6 and 7. Each, in theapplication, provides a bias or control charge flow to another pin or provide internal regulation support.
One could stress both pins without the capacitors but categorizing them into a group may be difficult. Pin 6
provides a bias, is it a power supply or output? Pin 7 provides charge control to pin 8, is it an output or
power supply? Additionally, Pin 7 must always be within a small voltage above Pin 8. Each category could
be applied (see Figure 8). If each is an output then the pins would receive both a positive and negative
current pulse since output can fluctuate between positive and negative values. Both pins can be labeled
as power supplies and biased to a correct value. If this is the case then an over-voltage pulse will beapplied. In many scenarios, neither of these configurations will work. Knowledge of the circuitry supporting
the pin of interest will be important in assigning the proper stress type. Generally, avoidance of an
unstable condition is paramount. If stability is not achieved, the results are not trustworthy. Engineering
judgment may be necessary to properly exercise the pins.
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Another option, described in Annex A of JESD78D, is to not directly stress these pins and have thecapacitors in place particularly if the device is unstable during any other set-up. The over-voltage test on
pin 2 would internally stress each of the externally unstressed pin(s). The part’s stability is generally very
good with this type of set-up since Pin 7 and Pin 8 will maintain the required voltage separation. The
remaining pins would be stressed as their descriptions require.
2.5.3

High Voltage TestingHigh voltage CMOS and BiCMOS devices can have some unique problems when Latch-Up stress isapplied. In many cases MSV will have to be applied. Also in many of today’s high voltage products, there
is little headroom above the data sheet VABSMAX to set the current stress voltage clamps without potentiallycausing a catastrophic failure. There may be cases under these conditions that VABSMAX may need to be
used. There is also the consideration that most Latch-Up test equipment has a 100 V/1 A ceiling on theirsourcing voltage and current. When confronted with this problem one can define the VMAX at a lower value
and do the over-voltage and current pulse voltage clamps at the machine maximum voltage. Anotherpossibility is to add external power supplies that reach the desired value and stress appropriately.
In the example shown in Figure 9, a mixed signal multi-port regulator is stressed using a combination ofdigital and analog methods. The product required vectors on the serial peripheral interface (SPI) to set theconditions of the drivers and the other outputs. This device also used charge pump drivers that, in theapplication, were controlled by a network of diodes, a resistor and capacitors to provide a bias to thecharge pump pin. Any stress on these charge pump driver pins would cause the device to malfunction(become unstable). This is a closed network and susceptible only through other power supply variation.
This network was not stressed during Latch-Up testing. All of the outputs and drivers were stressed bothwith positive and negative current pulses. The SPI clocked pins were not stressed for stability reasons.
The overvoltage stress on the three power supplies was set for the 5 V supply at 1.5 x VMAX, the 12 V
supply used an MSV of 1.2 x VMAX and the 60 V supply used an MSV of 1.1 x VMAX. Initial testing of thisproduct found Latch-Up problems in the driver and sense pins which was understood and corrected. Uponretest the product passed all Latch-Up criteria.
C3

D3

D1

D2
C1
CEXT1

1000 Ω

C2
CEXT2 VDDCP
/CS
SCLK
SDI
SDO

VSTACK± 60 V

G11
S11
G10
S10
Floating
Drivers

•
•
•

VDDP

DUT

VDD12V
D1
VDD5V
VDDIO

G1
S1

± 12 V

G0
S0

EN DIR

5 V SPI
Interface

FAULT

BGO

DIR_RTNGNDP
GND2X
FAIL 0,1,2± 5V

Miscellaneous Outputs

Figure 9. Product With Multiple Regulators Controlled by SPI

8

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References•••

Latchup in CMOS Technology; Ronald Troutman, 1986, Kluwer Academic Publishers
Latch-Up, ESD, and Other Phenomena (SLYA014)
JESD78D: IC Latch-Up Test at: www.Jedec.org

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