Electrical overstress, or EOS, is a phenomenon where electrical signals applied to a circuit or a device exceed normal operating parameters. These excessive electrical signals are abnormal by definition and are not a part of normal operation of the devices. [1]

Most stress-related semiconductor failures are electrothermal in nature; locally increased temperatures can lead to immediate failure by melting or vaporizing metallization layers, melting the semiconductor, or by changing the semiconductor features. Diffusion and electromigration tend to be accelerated by high temperatures, shortening the lifetime of the device. Damage to junctions may not lead to immediate failure, but it may manifest as altered current-voltage characteristics of the junctions. Electrical overstress failures can be classified as thermally-induced, electromigration-related and electric field-related failures;[2]

Currently, the device EOS failure has been characterized in DC mode and Pulsed mode. Safe operation area (SOA) [3] has been used as the voltage and current conditions over which a device can be expected to operate without self-damage. However, the existing characterization cf the SOA area is not fully covered by DC and TLP type ns scaled pulse. A high current pulsed source between us – ms is needed to bridge the gap.  In addition, the boundary of the safe operation area was not well studied and modeled in terms of repeated electrical stress. ( pulse repetition, pulse duty cycle, and accumulated performance degradation).

Based on the demand of a longer pulse width SOA characterization system, the EOS-500 Electrical-overstress Pulse Generator was developed by ESDEMC to address the pulsed SOA characterization with pulse widths from below 1 μs to over 1ms

EOS-500 R1 Prototype – less than 10 ns rise-time, the pulse width can be digitally adjustable from 1 μs – 1 ms.

EOS-500+ R1 Prototype – less than 6 ns rise-time, the pulse width can be digitally adjustable from 20 ns – 5 ms.

This pulse generator design has multiple advantages comparing to TLP design. such as it can generate pulses at 10000+ pulses per second rate at very repeatable pulse shape. It can be precisely trigged (synchronized ) externally. The pulse circuit is very reliable, no mechanical wearing. The pulse-width is precise, continuously and programmable adjustable from min to max.

The preliminary data sheet can be downloaded below. Specifications are subject to change.

Datasheet download: EOS-500

If you have interest, please contact us at info@esdemc.com