Automated Test Program Set Development using Integrated Circuit Electromagnetic Emissions

This proposal describes the automated development of a test program set utilizing electromagnetic emissions from integrated circuits to determine UUT operational status. Electromagnetic emissions from rapidly changing voltages and currents within high-speed logic and other circuits have traditionally been seen as a problematic source of electromagnetic interference that must be eliminated as much as 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. 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 common oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers. Our approach requires basic power supplies, logic stimulus, programmable oscilloscope/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. We present an approach towards capturing electromagnetic emission signatures through automated means, and ascribing failures to the circuit board as a whole, and to the individual circuit board components.