Gallium arsenide integrated-circuit testing using electro-optic sampling

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5995818

Weingarten, K J

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits (IC's) and other III-IV compound semiconductors have demonstrated operation speeds greater than the time resolution of conventional test instruments used for their characterization. In addition, digital GaAs IC's such as static frequency dividers have demonstrated clock rates greater than 20 GHz, frequencies where circuit models are poorly refined and influenced by layout-dependent parasitics. Conventional test instruments using contact probes are limited to monitoring input and output test points of these circuits. Probing at internal nodes, however, would greatly ease analysis of the circuit's operation. To address these issues, an electro-optic sampling system was developed at Stanford to measure internal-node signals in GaAs IC's with picosecond time resolution. Infrared light is focused through the GaAs IC substrate to detect voltages via the electro-optic effect, and a laser system generating ultrashort light pulses repetitively samples the signal to achieve picosecond time resolution. To obtain realistic testing conditions, a microwave synthesizer for providing excitation to the IC is synchronized to the repetition rate of the optical pulses, allowing equivalent-time sampling of the IC response.

• Research Organization: Stanford Univ., CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5995818
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
TESTING
ELECTRO-OPTICAL EFFECTS
SAMPLING
ARSENIC COMPOUNDS
ARSENIDES
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
PNICTIDES
420800* - Engineering- Electronic Circuits & Devices- (-1989)
360603 - Materials- Properties