Automated Test Program Set Development using Integrated Circuit Electromagnetic Emissions

This proposal describes an approach to revolutionize present day testing methods through the development of an automated means for the creation of a test program set utilizing electric and electromagnetic emissions from integrated circuits to determine UUT operational status. Electric and electromagnetic emissions from rapidly changing voltages and currents within high-speed logic and other circuits have traditionally been seen as a problematic source of interference that must be eliminated to the greatest extent possible. However, changes within these emissions can be a highly significant indicator that a failure has occurred within the IC as well as within adjacent circuit card paths. These failures often result in increased electric and electromagnetic interference that exceed EMI specifications. Further, the hardware and software requirements to capture and analyze these emissions are relatively simple in comparison to today’s highly complex automatic test equipment, however this approach was previously not possible until the recent development of comprehensive analysis capability within oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers. Our approach requires basic power supplies, logic stimulus, programmable real-time spectrum analyzer, and simple probes with a test fixture having no active circuitry, as opposed to the large number of stimulus and response equipment commonly found in ATE.