Waveform measurements in high-speed silicon bipolar circuits using a picosecond photoelectron scanning electron microscope

Abstract

A description is given of a noncontact waveform measurement technique for the characterization of high-speed LSI and VLSI circuits using a picosecond photoelectron scanning electron microscope with 5-ps temporal resolution, 0.1- mu m spatial resolution, and a voltage resolution of 3 mV/ square root Hz. The ability of the technique to measure and monitor the internal waveforms and to resolve the different contributions of the delay in the circuit without any loading effect is demonstrated by its application to the full characterization of sub-100-ps silicon bipolar ECL (emitter-coupled logic) circuits. >