Rapid diagnostics of ASIC circuit marginalities using dynamic laser stimulation

Author

Liao, Joy Y. ; Woods, Gary L. ; Marks, Howard Lee

Author_Institution

NVIDIA Corp., Santa Clara, CA, USA

Volume

6

Issue

1

fYear

2006

fDate

3/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

9

Lastpage

16

Abstract

The silicon debug process is increasingly important in producing profitable ICs, but faces increasing challenges. In this paper, the authors report the use of a powerful optical probing technique, dynamic laser stimulation (DLS), to rapidly localize marginal circuits that were causing yield loss on two high-performance ASIC chips. The probing results were obtained without detailed information about the circuits in question and without requiring automated test equipment (ATE) for the device stimulation.

Keywords

application specific integrated circuits; failure analysis; fault diagnosis; integrated circuit testing; laser beam applications; ASIC circuits; defect localization; dynamic laser stimulation; failure analysis; optical probing technique; silicon debug process; Application specific integrated circuits; Failure analysis; Manufacturing; Optical buffering; Optical design; Optical losses; Semiconductor lasers; Silicon; Stimulated emission; Test equipment; Defect localization; dynamic laser testing; failure analysis in ICs; laser scanning microscopy;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Device and Materials Reliability, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1530-4388

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TDMR.2006.870352

Filename

1618649