A Study of Materials Impacts on Graphene Electrostatic Discharge Switches

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection is required for ICs. Traditional in-Si PN junction ESD protection structures introduce significant ESD-induced design overheads including parasitic capacitance, leakage, noises and device sizes, which become unacceptable to advanced ICs. A novel graphene-based micro electrical mechanical system (MEMS) was reported as an alternative ESD protection solution. This paper reports a study of influences of graphene materials quality on the graphene ESD switch devices. Transmission-line pulse (TLP) testing shows that single-crystalline graphene film can improve the ESD switch performance dramatically over the polycrystalline counterpart.