Waveform measurements in high speed silicon bipolar circuits using a picosecond photoelectron scanning electron microscope

This paper describes a non-contact waveform measurement technique for the characterization of high speed LSI and VLSI circuits using a Picosecond Photoelectron Scanning Electron Microscope with 5 ps temporal resolution, 0.1 µm spatial resolution and a voltage resolution of 3mV/(Hz)^1/2. The capability of the technique to measure and monitor the internal waveforms and to resolve the different contributions of the delay in the circuit without any loading effect is demonstrated by its application to the full characterization of sub-100 ps silicon bipolar ECL circuits.