ESD Behavior of RF Switches and Importance of System Efficient ESD Design

RF switches are typically used in the RF front-end of portable devices such as antenna or matching tuners to improve the RF link performance. They are usually the first active devices after the antenna and are vulnerable to primary or secondary ESD discharges to the antennas. This paper investigates the ESD behavior of one of the high frequency switches used in the RF-front-end of portable devices and expresses the importance of the ESD pulse that passes through the switch and reaches the next stage in the RF path, possibly damaging the next stage