Location of hot spots in integrated circuits by monitoring the substrate thermal-phase lag with the mirage effect.
This Letter presents a solution for locating hot spots in active integrated circuits (IC) and devices. This method is based on sensing the phase lag between the power periodically dissipated by a device integrated in an IC (hot spot) and its corresponding thermal gradient into the chip substrate by monitoring the heat-induced refractive index gradient with a laser beam. The experimental results show a high accuracy and prove the suitability of this technique to locate and characterize devices behaving as hot spots in current IC technologies.
Perpiñà
Xavier
X
Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona IMB-CNM (CSIC), Campus de la Universitat Autonomade Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain. xavier.perpinya@imb-cnm.csic.es
Altet
Josep
J
Jordà
Xavier
X
Vellvehi
Miquel
M
Mestres
Narcís
N