Esd protection validator, an esd validation system and a method of validating esd protection for an ic

A method of validating electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection for an integrated circuit (IC), comprising:

• identifying ESD cells of said IC;
• comparing physical attributes associated with said identified ESD cells to ESD protection requirements to determine compliance therewith;
• and
• generating electrical signals to provide a status of ESD protection compliance for said IC.

An electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection validation system for integrated circuits (ICs) comprising:

• a predefined ESD protection element database configured to store technology-independent topologies of ESD protection elements wherein each of said topologies has a defined set of attributes for each pair of terminals thereof;
• an ESD protection element attributes database configured to store technology-dependent physical attributes associated with said ESD protection elements;
• an ESD protection requirements database configured to store ESD protection requirements for an IC including IC attributes and application attributes for pins of said IC;
• and
• an ESD protection validator, comprising:
• a circuit analyzer configured to provide identified ESD cells of said IC by comparing component information of said IC with said topologies of ESD protection elements;
• an ESD cell verifier configured to compare said physical attributes associated with said identified ESD cells to said ESD protection requirements and determine compliance therewith.