Diodes with a dog bone or cap-shaped junction profile to enhance esd performance, and other substructures, integrated circuits and processes of manufacture and testing

An integrated circuit (IC) comprising:

• a substrate with a circuit to be protected;
• and
• an electro-static discharge (ESD) structure coupled, and integrated with said circuit to be protected, as a diode that back-biases by ordinary operating voltage polarity for said circuit, said ESD structure having a cap-shaped doping profile overlying an opposite-conductivity doped portion and operable upon an ESD strike to provide avalanche conduction primarily perpendicular to the plane of said substrate and utilizing and conserving the periphery of the cap-shaped doping profile, whereby to protect the IC.

A manufacturing process for making an integrated circuit, the process comprising:

• forming a first-conductivity-type region in an opposite-type substrate;
• and
• providing an approximately cap-shaped structure having such opposite-type overlying and at least partially laterally bounding said first-type region so that an impressed electric field where said structure overlies said first-type region is at least as great in magnitude as an impressed electric field where said structure laterally bounds said first-type region.