Effect of Aging on Power Integrity and Conducted Emission of Digital Integrated Circuits

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that integrated circuit aging modifies electromagnetic emission significantly. The proposed paper aims at evaluating the impact of aging on the power integrity and the conducted emission of digital integrated circuits, clarifying the origin of electromagnetic emission evolution and proposing a methodology to predict this evolution. On-chip measurements of power supply voltage bounces in a CMOS 90 nm technology test chip and conducted emission measurements are combined with electric stress to characterize the influence of aging. Simulations based on ICEM modeling modified by an empirical coefficient to model the evolution of the emission induced by device aging is proposed and tested.

A review of research on the effect of aging on the EMC of integrated circuits

“…2. Simulation of the evolution of the conducted emission of a CMOS 90 nm digital core exposed to a 3 V electrical stress [5] Although these results are very positive for the control of EME at IC level, the impact of aging on EME should not be overlooked. Around the IC, passive devices such as capacitors, inductors or ferrites constitute efficient filtering elements of EME.…”

“…Predicting the drift of IC emission relies on an accurate modeling of the evolution of dynamic current consumption. In [5], an aging-aware EME model of the previous CMOS 90 nm digital circuit is built. From the IC netlist and the empirical relations between transistor parameters and electrical stress condition and durations extracted from measurements, an equivalent macromodel is constructed.…”

A New Methodology for EMC Prediction of Integrated Circuits After Aging

“…For example, in [5], the aging of filtering passive devices led to an increase of conducted and radiated emission produced by a switch-mode power supply. CMOS IC aging induces also a drift of the electromagnetic emission, as demonstrated by experiments in [6] and simulation [7]. Aging may also impair susceptibility of ICs such as digital circuits [8], I/O buffers, phase-locked loop [9], voltage regulator [10] or operational amplifiers [11].…”