Noninvasive optical method for measuring internal switching and

Details Noninvasive optical method for measuring internal switching and Noninvasive optical method for measuring internal switching and

1996-07-18

1999-08-17

Couso, Jose L.

Image analysis

Image sensing

G06K 920

Patent

active

059405457

ABSTRACT:
Intrinsic, transient optical emission from a CMOS integrated circuit is used to determine the internal switching of such a circuit including the temporal evolution of its logic states. By joining an appropriate optical microscope to a suitable, photon counting, multichannel optical detector which is capable of time resolution better than 100 psec, and a spatial resolution of better than 60 microns, full temporal information, including the relative phases of switching events, can be obtained from many devices in a circuit simultaneously. The time and spatial resolution are suitable for analyzing timing problems in present and future sub-micron-scale CMOS integrated circuits with switching speeds up to at least 10 GHz. The invention comprises a combination of an optical microscope and a detector capable of providing optical waveforms and/or spatial images of the light emitted during electrical switching by the individual devices which comprise an integrated circuit. The microscope and detector are combined such that an image of all or a portion of an integrated circuit under test is provided by the microscope to the detector. The spatial and temporal information from the detector is used to determine switching times and other dynamic information about the devices in the circuit.

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