Power supply transient signal analysis under real process and test hardware models

Abstract

A device testing method called Transient Signal Analysis (TSA) is subjected to elements of a real process and testing environment in this paper. Simulation experiments are designed to determine the effects of process skew (obtained from measured parameters of a real process) on the accuracy of TSA in estimating path delays from power supply IDDT and VDDT waveforms. The circuit model is designed to test TSA under deep submicron process models that incorporate advanced parameters such as transistor Vt width dependencies. Modeling elements of a testing environment including the probe card are subsequently introduced as a means of evaluating the effects of tester measurement noise in an actual implementation.