Terahertz plasmonics for testing very large-scale integrated circuits under bias

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11675002-B2
Application number	US-202017121851-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2020
Priority date	Feb 21, 2017
Publication date	Jun 13, 2023
Grant date	Jun 13, 2023

Abstract

Various embodiments are described that relate to failure determination for an integrated circuit. An integrated circuit can be tested to determine if the integrated circuit is functioning properly. The integrated circuit can be subjected to a specific radiation such that the integrated circuit produces a response. This response can be compared against an expected response to determine if the response matches the expected response. If the response does not match the expected response, then the integrated circuit fails the test. If the response matches the expected response, then the integrated circuit passes the test.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
an analysis component configured to perform a first analysis on a response produced by an emission of a radiation upon a first integrated circuit; and
a determination component configured to determine a health of the first integrated circuit based, at least in part, on a result of the analysis,
a selection component configured to make a selection between the first integrated circuit and a second integrated circuit,
where the analysis component is configured to perform a second analysis on a response produced by an emission of the radiation upon the second integrated circuit,
where the determination component is configured to determine a health of the second integrated circuit based, at least in part, on a result of the second analysis,
where the selection component makes the selection, at least in part, through comparison of the health of the first integrated circuit against the health of the second integrated circuit,
where a report is outputted that indicates the health,
where the report indicates the health, at least in part, by way of indicating the healthier integrated circuit between the first integrated circuit and the second integrated circuit, and
where the analysis component, the determination component, the selection component, or a combination thereof is implemented, at least in part, by way of hardware.

2. The system of claim 1 , comprising:
an identification component configured to identify a failure in the integrated circuit when the health of the circuit is determined to be failing.

3. The system of claim 1 ,
where the response is a voltage,
where the analysis comprises a comparison of the voltage against a voltage standard, and
where the health is determined based on if the comparison results such that the voltage meets the voltage standard.

4. The system of claim 3 , comprising:
an identification component configured to identify a failure in the integrated circuit when the health of the circuit is determined to be failing,
where the failure is identified, at least in part, by way of a value of the voltage.

5. The system of claim 4 , comprising:
a recordation component configured to create a record in a database that reflects technical detail of the radiation, the voltage, and the failure.

6. The system of claim 1 ,
where the response is a voltage,
where the emission is made with a power supplied,
where the analysis comprises a comparison of the voltage against the power supplied, and
where the health is determined based on if the comparison results as expected.

7. The system of claim 1 ,
where the response produced by emission of the radiation upon the integrated circuit is a response by a transistor set of the integrated circuit due to a bias of the transistor set.

8. The system of claim 1 ,
where the response is a noise spectral density.

9. The system of claim 1 ,
where the radiation is modulated as a function of time.

10. The system of claim 1 ,
where the response is a response by a transistor set of the integrated circuit due to a bias of the transistor set.

11. The system of claim 1 ,
where the emission of the radiation upon the integrated circuit occurs wirelessly.

12. The system of claim 1 ,
where the integrated circuit selected by the selection component is incorporated into an apparatus when the integrated circuit produces the response.

13. A system, comprising:
an analysis component configured to perform an analysis on a response produced by an emission of a radiation upon an integrated circuit; and
a determination component configured to determine a health of the integrated circuit based, at least in part, on a result of the analysis,
where a report is outputted that indicates the health and
where the analysis component, the determination component, or a combination thereof is implemented, at least in part, by way of hardware,
where analysis comprises a comparison of the voltage against the voltage standard at a pin-by-pin level,
where an individual pin of the integrated circuit has a voltage response,
where the voltage response of the individual pin is compared against a voltage standard of the individual pin to produce a comparison result,
where the analysis component is configured to compare the comparison result against an expected result,
where if the comparison result does not match the expected result, the determination component is configured to determine the health of the integrated circuit to be not healthy independent of a comparison of a comparison result of any other pin of the integrated circuit.

14. The system of claim 13 , comprising:
an identification component configured to identify the individual pin that causes the determination component to be configured to determine the health of the integrated circuit to be not healthy; and
an output component configured to cause the report to be output,
where the report indicates the individual pin that is identified.

15. A system, comprising:
an analysis component configured to perform an analysis on a response produced by an emission of a radiation upon an integrated circuit; and
a determination component configured to determine a health of the integrated circuit based, at least in part, on a result of the analysis,
where a report is outputted that indicates the health,
where the analysis component, the determination component, or a combination thereof is implemented, at least in part, by way of hardware,
where analysis comprises a comparison of the voltage against the voltage standard at a pin-by-pin level,
where the radiation is a first radiation at a first frequency value,
where the emission of the first radiation is supplied by a source,
where the first response is a first voltage response of the integrated circuit to the first radiation,
where the analysis component is configured to compare the first voltage response against a first voltage standard,
where the integrated circuit is subjected to an emission of a second radiation at a second frequency value from the source when the comparison indicates the health is not failing, and
where the integrated circuit is not subjected to an emission of a second radiation at a second frequency value from the source when the comparison indicates the health is failing.

16. A system, comprising:
an analysis component configured to perform an analysis on a response produced by an emission of a radiation upon an integrated circuit; and
a determination component configured to determine a health of the integrated circuit based, at least in part, on a result of the analysis,
where a report is outputted that indicates the health,
where the analysis component, the determination component, or a combination thereof is implemented, at least in part, by way of hardware,
where analysis comprises a comparison of the voltage against the voltage standard at a pin-by-pin level,
where the radiation comprises a first radiation and a second radiation,
where the response comprises a first response and a second response,
where the first radiation and the second radiation are at different frequency values,
where the first response is a first voltage response of the integrated circuit to the first radiation,
where the second response is a second voltage response of the integrated circuit to the second radiation,
where the analysis component is configured to compare the first voltage response against a first voltage standard,
where the analysis component is configured to compare the second voltage response against a second voltage standard,
wh

Assignees

• Us Gov Sec Army

Inventors

• Rupper Greg
• Suarez John
• Rudin Sergey
• Reed Meredith
• Shur Michael

Classifications

• G01R31/311 Primary

  of integrated circuits {(G01R31/31728 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• G01R31/318533

  using scanning techniques, e.g. LSSD, Boundary Scan, JTAG · CPC title

• G01R31/2815

  Functional tests, e.g. boundary scans, using the normal I/O contacts (contacting devices G01R31/2808; testing digital circuits G01R31/317, G06F11/00) · CPC title

• G01R31/2656

  using non-ionising electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical radiation · CPC title