SBIR Phase I: Magnetic Current Waveform Capture for Integrated Circuit Diagnostics

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop and evaluate a new technique for semiconductor diagnostics: magnetic current waveform capture. It is critically important to designers of integrated circuits and printed circuit boards, and the engineers and technicians who diagnose failed parts, that they have the ability to monitor the electrical signals inside devices in real time. This project will address the feasibility of a new method for monitoring these signals at frequencies into the gigahertz. Magnetic current waveform capture uses the weak, spatially microscopic magnetic fields emitted by all electrical currents to non-invasively monitor the currents themselves. For this purpose, a highly sensitive, microscopic magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensor will be used as the non-contact magnetic probe. These state-of-the-art spintronic sensors offer an unmatched combination of field sensitivity and spatial resolution critical to this application. This project will build a prototype system, including the critical front-end amplification circuitry and the required data processing and presentation software. The system will then be used to do measurements of current waveforms on a wide variety of real-world devices. This project will also explore the ultimate capabilities of the technique in terms of spatial and temporal resolution. The broader (commercial) impacts from this project will be a new diagnostic technique with the ability to provide an entirely new type of information to the semiconductor industry. This tool will not only lead to improved efficiency in critical sectors of the chipmaking world, its ability to provide information about current waveforms - a capability which does not exist at present time. This project will also create better understanding of these complicated devices. The coupling of high-speed electronics and cutting-edge magnetic sensor technology will also lay the groundwork for a powerful laboratory tool for basic research in the sciences and engineering. Such a tool could be used to study magnetization dynamics, electrical properties of materials, and a number of other issues.