Electro-static discharge (ESD) protection clamp technology

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a semiconductor substrate having an epitaxial layer including an electrical device; and

a back-end region formed on the semiconductor substrate, the back-end region including:

a first terminal;

a second terminal; and

an insulator-metal transition (IMT) material electrically coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal, the IMT material is produced during semiconductor processing of the back-end region on the semiconductor substrate.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IMT material is included in an electro-static discharge (ESD) device electrically coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IMT material is VO 2 or NbO 2 .

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IMT material has a trigger voltage larger than a target operating voltage of the electrical device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IMT material changes to a metallic material when a voltage exceeds an absolute value of an operating voltage of the electrical device, the IMT material changes to an insulating material when a voltage is less than an absolute value of the operating voltage of the electrical device.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein IMT material is an annealed IMT material.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:

a heat spreader coupled to the IMT material and included in the back-end region.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the IMT material is defined as a plurality of stripes with at least one of a width or a height on the order of a grain size of the IMT material.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a first terminal;

a second terminal; and

an electro-static discharge (ESD) device electrically coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal, the ESD device including:

an insulator-metal transition (IMT) material; and

a heat spreader material coupled to the IMT material, the IMT material has at least one of a width or a height on the order of a grain size of the IMT material.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the heat spreader is a first heat spreader, the ESD device including a second heat spreader.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , comprising:

a semiconductor region including an electrical device; and

a back-end region disposed on the semiconductor region, the back-end region including the ESD device.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the heat spreader includes an electrically insulating material and a thermally conductive material.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the heat spreader is made of an insulating material including Al 2 O 3 .

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the heat spreader is made of an insulating material including Si 3 N 4 .

15. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the IMT material is VO 2 or NbO 2 .

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a first terminal;

a second terminal; and

a first electro-static discharge (ESD) device electrically coupled between the first terminal and the second terminal, the first ESD device including a first insulator-metal transition (IMT) material and included in a first layer of a back-end region of a semiconductor device; and

a second electro-static discharge (ESD) device including a second (IMT) material, the second ESD device being in a second layer of the back-end region of the semiconductor device, the first layer being different than the second layer.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the first layer is a first metal layer and the second layer is an insulator layer or a second metal layer.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

a semiconductor region including an electrical device, the back-end region being coupled to the semiconductor region.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , further comprising:

a heat spreader coupled to the first IMT material.