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It is known that electrostatic discharge (ESD) is one of the frequent causes of integrated circuit failure and loss of spacecraft. However, the danger is not only the pulse itself but also the cross talk from it at the near (NEXT) and far (FEXT) ends. To investigate the possibility of their attenuating by meander line (ML) with a broadside coupling, a coupled microstrip line (MSL) was studied. As a result, the structure with a protected active line appeared to be the most promising. Also, the levels of NEXT and FEXT in it do not exceed 2% and 1.5% of half of the e.m.f. at s = 1000 µm, and when s = 100 µm 10% and 3%. In addition to evaluating signal attenuation, N-norms were analyzed as well. The most noteworthy is the nonlinear nature of the change in N2 depending on s. It is also notable that the proposed protection of the line from cross talk leads to a decrease in N1, N2, and N5. However, N3 and N4 increase at the same time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents new analytical models for calculating the time response of a meander line (ML) turn with symmetrical cross-section and terminations to a pulse excitation. For the first time, the models were used to derive simple analytical models to equalize voltage amplitudes of the first pulses at the ML turn output: two pulses in homogeneous and three pulses in inhomogeneous dielectric filling. The obtained models were validated by quasistatic simulation. As a result, we theoretically proved that the maximum pulse amplitudes at the ML output are equal to 61.8% and 41.4% of the input amplitudes for the lines with homogeneous and inhomogeneous dielectric filling, respectively. The results could considerably simplify a computer-aided design, allowing for accelerated optimization of these structures without costly multivariate calculation of time response by numerical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a new approach to electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection based on usage of a turn of a microstrip meander line (ML). The proposed approach enables decomposing an ESD peak surge with the duration of about 4 ns into a sequence of smaller amplitude pulses. Using a quasi-static simulation of the meander turn time response to the excitation of the IEC 61000-4-2 standard ESD current source, we obtained the condition for such decomposition. In addition, we derived the condition for the overlapping of the additionally reflected odd mode pulse of the negative polarity on the even mode pulse to reduce the amplitude of the last pulse. As an example, the proposed approach is used in investigating the ESD pulse propagation along the ML with various parameters. We also found the optimal value of the turn length for the minimum output ESD voltage, which decreases as the distance between the ML half-turns decreases. The described approach and the formulated conditions provide the improvement of the protection against ESD by decreasing its magnitude by several times. The effectiveness of the new approach is confirmed by the electrodynamic simulation and prototype measurements. The new research results supplement the theoretical framework for ESD mitigation techniques and can be used in designing reliable, light-weight, low-cost, and radiation-resistant ESD protection devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]