Fault investigation of some silicon integrated circuits

This paper reviews work in the field of design and fault investigation of special integrated circuits intended for use in military radio equipment. The circuits considered were designed, developed and master layouts prepared by the author and his colleagues. Fabrication was carried out by industry. The fault investigation was mainly centred around the spread of design parameters and the faults associated with device fabrication. Initial investigation was by means of `black box¿ measurements; more detailed measurements were carried out within the circuit chip using optical and electron microscope and mechanical probes.