Introduction to RF ESD Design (3 Credits) DD150

Instructor Kathleen Muhonen, Qorvo

This tutorial is an introduction to RF concepts and RF ESD
clamp design. It is intended for ESD engineers who do
not have an RF background to come up to speed on the
concepts needed to design effective protection circuits. The
RF concepts include impedance matching and smith chart
basics. RF amplifier operation and load line basics are
presented to give a foundation for the RF ESD protection
circuit design. The tutorial will also touch briefly on RF
switches and filters. The second half of the tutorial will focus
on how to design an ESD clamp for an RF application.
Concepts will be presented such as calculating the turn-on
voltage of the clamp such that it will protect the part but not
turn on during normal, RF operation. To design successful
RF ESD clamps, concepts such as peak-to-average
power ratio will be explained for common cellular and WiFi
standards. A clamp’s parasitics also needs to be considered
in an RF application so that the parasitics do not degrade
the product’s performance. Finally, some testing tools will
be reviewed with respect to evaluating RF products. The
challenges will be highlighted and different testing practices
that are used in HBM, TLP and IEC testing of RF products
will be reviewed.