Thermal Testing of Integrated Circuits - Hardcover

Altet, J.; Rubio, Antonio

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1402070764 ISBN 13: 9781402070761

Publisher: Springer, 2002

Synopsis

Integrated circuits (IC's) have undergone a significant evolution in terms of complexity and performance as a result 'of the substantial advances made in manufacturing technology. Circuits, in their various mixed formats, can be made up tens or even hundreds of millions of devices. They work at extremely low voltages and switch at very high frequencies. Testing of circuits has become an essential process in IC manufacturing, in the effort to ensure that the manufactured components have the appropriate levels of quality. Along with the ongoing trend towards more advanced technology and circuit features, major testing challenges are continuously emerging. The use of ambivalent procedures to test the analogue and digital sections of such complex circuits without interfering in their nominal operation is clearly a critical part of today's technological ipdustries. Chapter 1 presents the general purposes and basic concepts rel~ted With' the"testing of integrated circuits, discussing the various strategies and their limitations. Readers who are already familiar with the field may opt to skip this chapter. This book offers a multidisciplinary focus on thermal testing. This is a testing method which is not only suitable for use in combination with other existing techniques, but is also backed by a wealth of knowledge and offers exciting opportunities in the form of as yet unexplored areas of research and innovation for industrial applications.

About this title

Synopsis

"Thermal Testing of Integrated Circuits" presents the feasibility to consider temperature as an observable for testing purposes. The coupling of circuits through heat is inherent to the solid-state nature and the inspection of temperature does not interact with Under Test Circuits or Systems, something that does not happen when voltage or current observable are used. In the book, the basis of heat propagation, heat conducting mechanisms and temperature sensitivity of semiconductors are focused with a full coverage of the state of the art. We usually have the idea that all the heating processes are slow, which is true in the macroscopic world, but is not in the case of integrated circuits where the reduced size and amount of material and the really high conductivity of substrates make the thermal testing a promising technique. CMOS and BICMOS temperature sensors for built-in thermal testing are presented in the book. The application of temperature as testing magnitude for both on-line and off-line, analog or digital, on-chip or off-chip are considered.

The temperature sensing has an inherent directional capability that can be used as an element for localizing failures, so the technique has interesting diagnosis capabilities as well.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1402070764
• ISBN 13: 9781402070761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 218