ESD verification Shift Left strategy: Identifying and fortifying weak links in IC Design - Allegromicro

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) continues to pose a significant threat to electronic components, with over 30% of IC failures attributed to ESD or electro overstress (EOS) events, leading to substantial financial losses. This session serves as a follow-up to last year Allegro's presentation, where we introduced an automated methodology using Siemens Calibre PERC to verify robust ESD protection paths that meet Human Body Model (HBM) requirements, significantly reducing manual verification time and error rates. Building on that foundation, we now address a critical vulnerability: the weakest link in the protection chain. While previous methods ensured the presence of adequate ESD protection, this new approach identifies potential parallel paths that might trigger prematurely, bypassing the intended protection and risking device damage. This methodology pinpoints and fortifies these weak links, ensuring comprehensive ESD safeguarding.