Electrostatic discharge (ESD) in integrated circuits (ICs) occurs due to charge transferbetween two components in close proximity with voltage imbalance. As a result of an ESD
event, a high transient current (up to few tens of Amps) and large voltage (up to several tens
of kV) can develop between the two components. This fast ( 150 ns) transient phenomenon
can cause serious damage or degrade the performance of affected ICs. ESD results in about
35% of IC eld returns and is the cause of several billion dollars loss to the semiconductor
industry per year. Even though most modern ICs have on-chip ESD protection circuitry
embedded, static charge accumulation during transport and handling may exceed the limits
of ESD protection and cause damage to the ICs. Advanced packaging schemes existing today
are not amenable to rework if one or more dielets are ESD compromised. An on-chip ESD
sensor would help in identifying and preventing the assembly of ESD compromised dielets
in any advanced packaging schemes. In this dissertation, two approaches for on-chip ESD
detection that can be employed on any die are presented: variable dielectric width capacitor,
and vertical MOSCAP array. The variable dielectric width capacitor approach employs
metal plates terminated with sharp corners to enhance local electric eld and facilitate
easy breakdown of the thin dielectric between the metal plates. The vertical MOSCAP
array consists of a capacitor array connected in series. Both approaches were designed,
simulated, fabricated, and experimentally characterized on GlobalFoundries 22 nm fully
depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) technology. The designed vertical MOSCAP arrays
were able to detect ESD events 6V while the variable dielectric width capacitor-based
sensor is able to detect ESD voltages 40V . A Bayesian method was formulated for the
estimation of ESD voltage using the sensors and experimentally validated. Mathematical
formulation for sensitivity and confidence in ESD voltage estimation was developed which
matches the results of Monte-Carlo simulations.
Finally, a novel high-power delivery network for the Silicon interconnect fabric (Si-IF), aheterogeneous wafer-scale integration platform, is also proposed. The system is capable of 42
kW output power delivery to dielets when supplied with a 50-kW input power. Power delivery
network (PDN) modelling and simulations have been carried out to determine impedance
spectrum and I2R losses. A 100 W experimental prototype was designed and evaluated to
check the feasibility of the proposed architecture.