Semiconductor esd device

A method of making an electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection device, the method comprising:

• providing a semiconductor substrate;
• forming an active region of the device on the substrate by:
• forming a gate, a source and a drain, wherein the source and drain each extend away from the gate along a device axis;
• performing silicidation to form a silicide portion in the drain and the source;
• and
• providing a drain contact on the silicide portion of the drain and source contact on the silicide portion of the source, wherein the drain contact is laterally offset with respect to the source contact along a direction orthogonal to the device axis whereby current flow between the source contact and the drain contact has a lateral component,
• wherein said silicidation is performed using a mask to retain a non-silicide region located laterally between the drain contact and the source contact.