Experimental Investigations into the Effects of Electrical Stress on Electromagnetic Emission from Integrated Circuits

Abstract

International audienceRecent studies have shown that the aging of integrated circuits may modify electromagnetic emission significantly. This paper reports on an experiment to elucidate the origins of emission level changes in a test chip using 90 nm CMOS technology. Circuit analysis, combined with electromagnetic emission and on-chip power supply voltage bounce measurements made during the application of electric stress, have identified the role of intrinsic wear-out mechanisms which contribute to a progressive change in the transient current produced by the circuit

A New Methodology for EMC Prediction of Integrated Circuits After Aging

“…Weibull's distribution for the statistical analysis of the failure mode allows modeling the three life stages of semiconductor components (infant mortality, useful life, wearout). Its probability density function is given by (6), where α is referred as the characteristic TTF and β is Weibull slope or shape parameter. Failure rate in each life stage can be expressed by different values of the Weibull parameter β.…”

“…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].…”

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

“…These last years, numerous experimental studies consisting in emission measurements combined with accelerated-aging conditions have been done on various type of ICs (small digital cores [2], oscillators [3], I/O buffers [4]) designed in CMOS 0.25 µm, 90 nm and 65 nm technologies. Globally, the same conclusion has been drawn from all these experiments: applying electrical or thermal stress to ICs leads to a time dependent reduction of the power integrity issues, conducted and radiated EME, whatever its technology.…”

Long-term Electro-Magnetic Robustness of Integrated Circuits: EMRIC research project

“…Fig. 6 presents the evolution of the conducted emission from the switching of a digital output buffer after different stress durations [7]. The result shows a significant and gradual reduction of the high frequency spectral content of the noise created by the I/O switching.…”