Observation of high-frequency analog/RF electrical circuit characteristics by on-chip thermal measurements

In this work a new technique for the observation and characterization of high-frequency electrical characteristics of analog and radio frequency integrated circuits (RFIC) by on-chip frequency-domain thermal measurements is proposed. The analysis presented confirms that low-frequency spectral components of the temperature sensed close to analog circuits contain information about some high-frequency characteristics of the circuits observed. The feasibility of this RF testing technique is confirmed experimentally. It is non-invasive and can be implemented with a very small area overhead. The technique is applied, as an example, to obtain some electrical characteristic of an RF low noise amplifier (LNA)