Second Draft

Characterization of Laser Voltage Probing
Cheng Yi Chiao

SCHOOL OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MICROELECTRONICS

2012

Abstract
The effects that laser power on 32nm SOI for a repeater circuitry are explored. Other parameters such
as voltage and frequency are also tested to determine the variations that may arise from adjusting such
variables. The noise is also characterized for the same process using the same parameters. The noise is
analysed using the Wigner Ville Distribution to determine frequency anomalies in time that would
normally be missing using the conventional time or frequency domain. Laser power and voltage have a
positive correlation with the final signal strength while frequency does not seem to play a major role.
Whilst for noise analysis, low frequency is very pronounced in the noise signal. At the same time there
are signs of peaks and troughs in the PSD analysis of the noise. These are believed to be contributed by
best case and worst case scenario of impedance matching of the circuitry.
Acknowledgements
Many people contributed to this final end result. Of course, most importantly, my supervisors Professor
Tan Cher Ming and Mr. Venkat Krishnan Ravikumar. I am also grateful to my previous supervisors for
their support in this program and the help they have extended to me, Professor Siek Liter and Professor
Chang Chip Hong. At the same time, Ms. Vivienne Ho from GIST has been of great help and support
during this grueling endeavor. Lastly of course, I would like to thank my friends at AMD and during my
coursework as well as my girlfriend for her understanding.

Table of Contents
Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................... 3
Table of figures ......................................................................................................................................... 5
I Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 8
1. Motivation ..................................................................................................................................... 8
2. Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 8
II Literature Review ................................................................................................................................... 9
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 9
2. Sample preparation/ Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP)[1-4] ................................................ 9
3. Flip chip[8-13] ............................................................................................................................. 12
4. Franz Keldysh effect [14] ............................................................................................................. 14
5. Laser voltage probe (LVP)[16-18] ............................................................................................... 15
6. Device under test (DUT) .............................................................................................................. 16
C. Repeater circuitry........................................................................................................................ 23
8. Noise ........................................................................................................................................... 27
9. Time Frequency Analysis ............................................................................................................. 29
8. Data collection ............................................................................................................................ 53
III Noise Characterization ........................................................................................................................ 78
1. Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 78
2. Frequency.................................................................................................................................... 80
3. Laser Power ................................................................................................................................. 82
4. Voltage ........................................................................................................................................ 85
5. Focus ........................................................................................................................................... 88
6. Limitations and Problems encountered ...................................................................................... 90
7. Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 90
IV Conclusion and future work................................................................................................................ 91
Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 91
Future works ....................................................................................................................................... 91
V References ........................................................................................................................................... 93

Table of figures
Figure 1 Multiprep for CMP ........................................................................................................................ 10
Figure 2 CMP ............................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 3 Llano FS1 chip ................................................................................................................................ 11
Figure 4 Flip Chip pad .................................................................................................................................. 12
Figure 5 Flip Chip bumps ............................................................................................................................ 12
Figure 6 Flip Chip flipped ............................................................................................................................ 12
Figure 7 Mounting of flip chip ..................................................................................................................... 12
Figure 8 Alignment and mounting of flip chip ............................................................................................ 12
Figure 9 Melting the solder through hot air reflow .................................................................................... 12
Figure 10 Mount underfill ........................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 11 Flip chip final ............................................................................................................................... 13
Figure 12 U.S. Patent 5888297 ................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 13 SIMOX .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Figure 14 Wafer bonding ............................................................................................................................ 17
Figure 15 US Patent 5882987 ..................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 16 Smart cut process flow ................................................................................................................ 18
Figure 17 Conventional Silicon .................................................................................................................... 19
Figure 18 Partially Depleted SOI ................................................................................................................. 19
Figure 19 Fully Depleted SOI ....................................................................................................................... 19
Figure 20 Kink effect ................................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 21 Floating body effect .................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 22 Conventional Process versus SOI ................................................................................................ 22
Figure 23 Repeater insertion ...................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 24 Llano FS1 Die Area ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Figure 25 DCG Emiscope ............................................................................................................................. 26
Figure 26 Flicker Noise ................................................................................................................................ 27
Figure 27 Time-frequency distributions of four different signals with similar frequency components ..... 30
Figure 28 Short-time Fourier Transform ..................................................................................................... 37
Figure 29 Wavelet Transform ..................................................................................................................... 37
Figure 30 Basic Wavelet function Mexican hat function ............................................................................ 38
Figure 31 Morlet function ........................................................................................................................... 38
Figure 32 Compared time-frequency resolution of spectrograms and scalograms. (a) Spectrogram with
window neither short nor long; (b) Spectrogram with long window; (c) Spectrogram with short window;
(d) Scalograms. [29] .................................................................................................................................... 39
Figure 33 Crossterm interference of WVD; (a) WVD of the sum of two Gaussian functions [60]. (b) the
crossterm in the middle of the two sinusoidal function [29] ..................................................................... 44
Figure 34 The worst-case signal component for the fastest oscillating frequency [61] ............................. 45
Figure 35 Real signal (a) and analytical signal (b) spectrum. <> is the average frequency ...................... 47
Figure 36 The reduction of Wigner-Ville distributions anti-lasing by applying the analytical signal[62].
Signal on the left is real whilst signal on the right is analytical .................................................................. 47
Figure 37 (a) t-f plane of 2 signal components, (b) Corelative-domain analysis of their anti-lasing [63] .. 49
Figure 38 Effective support of ambiguity kernel: (a) WVD (no smoothing), (b) PWD, (c) SPWD ............... 51
Figure 39 10X magnification ....................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 40 SIL Magnification ......................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 41 Digital 7X after SIL ....................................................................................................................... 53
Figure 42 Identification using LVI ................................................................................................................ 53
Figure 43 Generic example of moving average .......................................................................................... 54
Figure 44 Generic waveform ....................................................................................................................... 56
Figure 45 Demonstration of SNR ................................................................................................................ 56
Figure 46 Definitions for rise/ fall time ....................................................................................................... 57
Figure 47 NMOS2 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz ........................................................................................... 58
Figure 48 NMOS4 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz ........................................................................................... 58
Figure 49 PMOS1 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz ............................................................................................ 59
Figure 52 Laser power at 240 ...................................................................................................................... 61
Figure 56 Chip 1 NMOS4 1V Laser Power 240 10Mhz ................................................................................ 62
Figure 62 Chip 1 PMOS4 1V Laser Power 240 10Mhz ................................................................................. 66
Figure 68 Voltage at 0.9V ............................................................................................................................ 69
Figure 72 Chip 1 NMOS4 0.9V Laser Power 269 10Mhz ............................................................................. 70
Figure 81 Chip 2 NMOS4 1.2V Laser Power 269 5Mhz ............................................................................... 76
Figure 82 Figure 54 Chip 2 NMOS4 1.2V Laser Power 269 10Mhz ............................................................. 76
Figure 83 Figure 54 Chip 2 NMOS4 1.2V Laser Power 269 25Mhz ............................................................. 77
Figure 84 Repeater circuitry at LVI and location of probe .......................................................................... 78
Figure 85 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in frequency ........................................ 81
Figure 86 PSD at 1Mhz ................................................................................................................................ 81
Figure 87 PSD at 10Mhz .............................................................................................................................. 81
Figure 88 PSD at 50Mhz .............................................................................................................................. 81
Figure 89 PSD at 200Mhz ............................................................................................................................ 81
Figure 90 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in laser power ..................................... 83
Figure 91 PSD at laser power 240 ............................................................................................................... 83
Figure 94 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in voltage ............................................ 85
Figure 95 PSD at voltage 0p5 ...................................................................................................................... 86
Figure 98 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in focus ................................................ 88
Figure 99 PSD In Focus ................................................................................................................................ 89
Figure 100 PSD Out of Focus ....................................................................................................................... 89

I Introduction
1. Motivation
Following Moores law, the semiconductor industry has managed to shrink feature size of devices by half
every 18 months. The scaling down of the devices creates an ever more challenging task to conduct tests
on the devices. The motivation for the project was to fill the gaps concerning the laser voltage probe
test equipment. Limited research has been conducted with concerns to the effects of laser power
targeted on a piece of silicon. The literature on the laser voltage probe does not detail the effects of
laser on the device under test. At the same time, there is little documentation on the disparity in noise
due to different conditions, namely a change in laser power, voltage, frequency and focus. This project
aims to fill in those voids. A better understanding of laser power and its effects on silicon would allow
users to select an optimum value when performing probes. At the same time, the understanding of the
noise effects would further fine tune the optimum operating point.
2. Objective
The objective of the project is twofold:
To characterize the laser power and the effects it has on voltage and timing of the waveform
To characterize the noise from changes in the setup due to frequency, voltage, laser power and focusing

II Literature Review
1. Introduction
The literature review will cover the processes, test equipment as well as the underlying physics that is at
work to yield results from the test equipment. The historical reason for using the laser voltage probe is
discussed, namely the change of packaging technology to flipchip. At the same time, the noise effects
were analysed using time frequency analysis analysis as opposed to the conventional time or frequency
stand alone analysis. The literature review covers the benefits and disadvantages of time frequency
analysis.
2. Sample preparation/ Chemical Mechanical Polishing
(CMP)[1-4]
CMP is a process of removing bumps from the die surface using chemical and mechanical methods. The
die is planarized by undergoing mechanical grinding. This process however induces a high surface
damage. Standalone chemical methods cannot achieve planarization. The operating physics involved
behind CMP is to induce higher pressure where the die is thicker this results in the removal of the
thicker area first. The polishing head not only oscillates but rotates about an axis to bring about
smoother polishing. The axis of rotation of the polishing head is rotated in tandem with the plate to
bring about maximum effect. The silicon is removed micron by micron and the irregular topography is
slowly evened out. Lapping paper is added to the polishing plate. The lapping paper is akin to sandpaper,
however with very small grains ranging from 3m to 30m in size. The lapping paper is changed from
small grain size to large grain size and back to a small grain size again to ensure a fine and even grinding.
The slurry is normally water at the beginning stages and then finally a 0.2m silica colloid for the final
mirror polish.

Figure 1 Multiprep for CMP[5]

Figure 2 CMP[6]

The chips are being probed from the backside due to the flipchip packaging. The samples need to be
thinned down to the order of 100 microns in order for the solid immersion lens (SIL) to have optimum
contact and allow optimum laser to pass through. The silicon normally starts at 800 microns thickness
after the chip has been de lidded and the metallic cover has been removed. The chip is processed and
attached to a jig which is then attached to the Multiprep machine and thinned down through chemical
mechanical polishing.

Figure 3 Llano FS1 chip[7]
There are certain difficulties when performing the CMP
Over polishing
Under polishing
Uneven polishing
Cracking during polishing
For over polished samples and cracked samples, the chips ets are immediately rendered useless. As for
under polished samples, the image quality deteriorates. A thicker sample tends to exhibit more fringe
effects when undergoing imaging and causes features to be hidden within the fringes. This is especially
pronounced at lower magnifications. At the same time, the thicker sample requires much more laser
power and a higher pressure from the SIL. Despite the compensation, the image quality will still be
vastly inferior to be a properly polished sample. Uneven samples on the other hand causes a need to
refocus whilst doing imaging and may produce sporadic bad images with heavy fringing at critical areas
of interest. Unevenness in the sample cannot be avoided and can range between 10 to 20 microns. This
effect is known as warpage and the highest point is normally the center of the chip if attached to the jig
properly.
3. Flipchip Technology [8-13]

Figure 4 Flip Chip pad[10]

Figure 5 Flip Chip bumps[10]

Figure 6 Flip Chip flipped[10]

Figure 7 Mounting of flip chip[10]

Figure 8 Alignment and mounting of flip chip[10]

Figure 9 Melting the solder through hot air reflow[10]

Figure 10 Mount underfill[10]

Figure 11 Flip chip final[10]

The flip chip is also known as C4 (controlled collapse chip connection). The silicon die is connected to
external PCB through solder bumps. During wafer fabrication the solder bumps are deposited on the
topside of the chip pads. The chip is then flipped over and aligned to the correct connections on the PCB
external circuitry. The solder is then melted to join the silicon with the external circuitry.
The process steps in creating the flip chip are:[10]
1. The integrated circuits is created on the wafer
2. Pads are metalized on the surface of the chips
3. Solder dots are deposited on each pad individually
4. The chips are cut into the correct die size
5. The chips are flipped and aligned to ensure the solder balls are connected to the correct
external connectors on the external circuitry
6. The solder is melted through hot air reflow
7. The mounted chip is filled at the bottom with an electrically insulating adhesive known as
underfill
The advent of the flipchip packaging technology helped to improve the speed and performance of
integrated circuits (IC) however; it posed a problem when it came to the analysis of the chip. This is
discussed later in the section on Laser Voltage Probe.

4. Franz Keldysh effect [14]
An electroabsorption modulator is a semiconductor device which can be used for modulating the
intensity of a laser beam via an electric voltage.[15] The physical principle behind it is the FranzKeldysh
effect i.e. This effect is a change in the absorption spectrum caused by an applied electric field, which
changes the bandgap energy (thus the photon energy of an absorption edge) but usually does not
involve the excitation of carriers by the electric field.
The Franz Keldysh effect occurs when there is an uniform electric field and a crystal is placed in the field
thereby changing the absorption coefficient for the crystal. The uniform electric field causes a chande in
the structure and electron states in the crystal. The absorption threshold shifted to a lower energy state.
The absorption curve on the low energy side of the zero field thresholds will demonstrate an
exponential tail. The Bloch functions help to model the conditions for the electrons
(
0
, , ) = exp { -
1
(
0
)}
(
0
, )
1
0

The function satisfies the time dependent Schrodinger equation for the model.
When the electric field is absent, the integrand varies harmonically with time. This demonstrates that
the energy remains constant.
Electroabsorption modulators are constructed using an electric field that is orthogonal to the modulated
light beam. The field is applied to form the wave. In order to attain a high extinction ratio, the quantum-
confined Stark effect in a quantum well structure is employed.
Advantages of the electroabsorption modulators versus electro-optic modulators are that
electroabsorption modulators can operate at much lower. They can be operated at very high speeds.
The modulation bandwidth can reach tens of gigahertz, which makes these devices useful for optical
fiber communications. A convenient feature is that an electroabsorption modulator can be constructed
into photonic integrated circuit. The modulator is integrated with a distributed feedback laser diode on
a single die to form a data transmitter. This is crucial in the experiment in order to collect data points.
Compared with direct modulation of the laser diode, a higher bandwidth and reduced chirp can be
obtained.

5. Laser voltage probe (LVP)[16-18]
The laser voltage probe (LVP) is mainly used for waveform analysis. The tool was designed for debugging
of flipchip packaged ICs. As discussed in the previous section, with the advent of flichip technology, only
the backside of the chips became accessible for probing. LVP is a a viable technique to probe diffusions
in flipchip ICs. Traditional techniques such as mechanical probing are more expensive and become more
inefficient with decreasing feature size. The main disadvantages include:
limited access to sites due to area of interest versus probe size
Probe impedance
Probe bandwidth
Probe size
Probe speed with concerns to multiple locations
Electron beam probing is also heavily relied on in the testing industry. This tool solves some of the
problems with mechanical probing; however it presents its own limitations. There is limited bandwidth,
the inability to reach metal layers and destructive milling is needed to reach the silicon. This destroys
the functionality of the chip and renders it useless.
The waveform analysis includes the following:
Recording the voltage amplitude at specific locations of the device
The switching characteristics at that location
Compare the parameters between different locations
The main physical principal behind the LVP is the Franz Keldysh effect. Based on the effect, the effective
bandgap of the semiconductor will change when an electric field is applied. This is the result of the
mixing of the conduction and valence bands. The refractive index of silicon changes accordingly. The
absorption of light will alter due to this change in the refractive index. The intensity and phase of the
reflected beam are modulated and these measurements could be taken to track the correlated changes
in the electric field. The free carrier absorption also plays a role in the use of the technique. The 1.34um
laser is the main wavelength of the laser. Phase modulation tends to dominate over the absorptive
component. The free carrier component mostly contributes to the amplitude modulation. This is mostly
from the laser power of the LVP system.
The amplitude of the laser beam is attenuated when passing through the silicon, therefore for best
results the silicon thickness is normally between 50um to 100um. The polishing process was described
earlier in the CMP section. The minimum basic system consists of a diffraction limited confocal laser
scanning microscope (LSM) and a diode pumped Nd laser. There are normally two lasers provided the
1340nm laser as well as a 1064nm laser. The 1340nm laser is normally utilized because it is less
destructive to the silicon. During signal acquisition, the supplied and received intensities of the two
lasers are measured. Vibrations and its effects are reduced by using information from the reflected low
power laser intensity. A separate circuitry helps to synchronize the entire sequence of the waveform
measurement. A phase-interference-detector can be added to the LSM to further minimize vibrations.
The addition of the solid immersion lens (SIL) improves magnification and resolution of the image. The
SIL allowed a better physical magnification and a greater resolution to the area of interest.
6. Device under test (DUT)
A. Silicon on insulator process
Overview
Silicon on Insulator (SOI)[19, 20] is essentially the sandwiching of an insulating material between two
pieces of silicon as compared to conventional bulk silicon. Parasitic device capacitance is greatly reduced
and the overall performance of the chip is greatly improved. Normally silicon dioxide or sapphire is
chosen as the insulation. SOI technology simplifies manufacturing process by eliminating the wells and
field implantation steps. Smaller features can be fabricated and cross talk reduced.
B. Methods of manufacture
Separation by Implantation of Oxygen (SIMOX)[19, 21, 22]
Simox is a two stage process. It begins with an implantation with an oxygen beam. The silicon dioxide
layer is then created through high temperature annealing.

Figure 12 Simox process [21]

Figure 13 SIMOX[20]
Wafer bonding [23]
The basics of wafer bonding are illustrated in the figure below.

Figure 14 Wafer bonding[20]
There are a few different technologies available for the wafer bonding process. One of them is the Smart
Cut method from Soitec. [24]

Figure 15 Process steps for Smart Cut
technology[24]

Figure 16 Smart cut process flow[24]

Fully Depleted and Partially Depleted SOI

Figure 17 Conventional Silicon[20]

Figure 18 Partially Depleted SOI[20]

Figure 19 Fully Depleted SOI[20]

Fully Depleted SOI (FD SOI)[20]
Fully depleted mode occurs when the channel depletion region extends through the entire thickness of
the silicon layer.
Partially Depleted SOI (PD SOI)[20]
Partially depleted transistors are built with thicker silicon layers as compared to the FD SOI. The fully
powered MOS channel will have a depletion depth less than the thickness of the silicon.

Table 1 illustrates the different properties and attributes between FD SOI and PD SOI.
Table 1 Differences between FD SOI and PD SOI[20]
FD SOI[20] PD SOI[20]
FD SOI devices do not suffer from the kink effect.
This arises because the majority carriers can
penetrate the source more easily. This prevents
the excess carriers from accumulating
PD SOI tend to suffer from the kink effect which is
described later
FD SOI MOSFETs will have a reduced body effect
and a nearly ideal
ratio when biased in the

weak region. There is still a weak current voltage
kink still exists in the strong inversion region
Once again, the PD SOI suffers from the kink effect
They are by the interface coupling effect. The
interface coupling is unavoidable for FD SOI. All
parameters: threshold voltage, transconductance,
interface-trap response etc. of one channel are
affected by the opposite gate voltage
PD SOI is not affected by the interface coupling
effect
FD SOI has a better subthreshold swing, S.

FD SOI has 1/S = 65 to 70 mV/decade. The ideal
characteristic of a MOS transistor at room
temperature is 1/S = 60 mV/decade
For the bulk and PD devices, 1/S = 85 to 90
mV/decade
Fully-depleted SOI devices perform better in
general. The circuit characteristics show higher
gains in circuit speed, reduced power
requirements and high levels of soft-error
immunity. The sharper subthreshold gradient
allows the FD devices operate faster. The reduced
threshold voltage allows for faster switching of the
MOS transistors. These transistors also have
increased drive currents at relatively low voltages
PD SOI have poorer performance in general
Threshold voltage is directly related to SOI
thickness. Because the FD SOI is relatively thin, a
slight variation would be huge in percentage
change of the thickness thereby affecting the
threshold voltage. This is one of the most serious
problems in FD SOI MOSFETs
PD SOI devices have a thick silicon layer and is less
susceptible to manufacturing drift
Porting of FD SOI is not as straight forward and can
incur higher costs
Porting of PD SOI designs from bulk Silicon is
relatively easy

Electrical anomalies
Overview
Both types of SOI suffer from certain electrical anomalies such as the kink effect, floating body effect
and the self heating effect. However some of the effects are more pronounced in PD SOI as compared to
FD SOI.
Kink Effect[20]
There is a sudden discontinuity in the drain current. This is most pronounced when device is biased in
the saturation region as seen in figure 20.

Figure 20 Kink effect[20]
Floating body effect[20]
The Floating body effect is a common occurrence in the partially depleted devices. A parasitic bipolar
structure exists in parallel with the MOS structure. The base of the BJT is not connected and floating,
hence the name floating body effect. This is demonstrated in figure 21.
Partially depleted SOI MOSFETs for the floating body devices exhibit a larger drain current as compared
to a tied body device. For VDS that is very much lower in magnitude than the kink voltage, the effect
arises because of the storage of holes thermally generated at the drain-body junction.

Figure 21 Floating body effect[20]

Self heating effect[20]
Thermal insulation is provided by the oxide surface. The material is not a good conductor and heat
dissipation is not efficient. The toggling of logic states is when the effect is most pronounced.

Advantage and disadvantages of SOI over conventional bulk silicon[20]
Implementing SOI allows for the feature sizes of transistors to continue to shrink and hence allow
Moores Law to survive. The main advantages of SOI are:
Lower parasitic capacitance due to the isolation form bulk silicon
Better of power consumption because of smaller feature size and lower parasitic
Higher device density
Easier to isolate the device
Reduced and eliminate latchup by the complete isolation of p and n wells

Figure 22 Conventional Process versus SOI[20]
Manufacturing of SOI does not require a change in the manufacturing tools. The machines used are the
same and only requires a change in process steps and recipe. This makes it more adaptable for foundries
when considering implementation as it does not require additional sunk in costs.
There are however several drawbacks:
Despite no extra sunk in costs, the manufacturing costs is 15% higher because of the added
complexity and additional steps needed to realize the final wafer
There will be floating body effect
The electrical properties differ from bulk silicon and may require additional design steps to port
the technology fully

C. Repeater circuitry
Repeater circuitrys main function is to reduce propagation delay of long wires. They serve as
intermediate buffers between interconnects. An m times reduction in interconnect line length will
reduce propagation delay by a quadratic function. This is offsets the extra delay caused by the repeaters
when the wire is extremely long. [25-29]

Figure 23 Repeater insertion[25]

Figure 24 Repeater circtuitry layout

Figure 25 Repeater Circuitry in LSM

The optimum number of repeaters can be derived:
0.38
()

Where,
is the optimum number of repeaters
is the fixed delay

The minimum delay for the wire is
,
= 2
()

The optimum is obtained when the delay of the individual wire segments are made equal to that of a
repeater.
Short circuit power consumption[25]
Short-circuit current flows when both transistors of the inverting repeater are simultaneously on. The
thickness of the line thickness determines overall dynamic power dissipated. It also determines the
short circuit power dissipation. The relation of the line thickness with short circuit power is direct
proportionality. In the case of dynamic power it is inversely proportional. Thin resistive lines allow for a
large number of repeaters. Short-circuit power also depends on both the input signal transition time and
the load characteristics. The short-circuit power dissipation of a repeater driving an RC load is
=
1
2

Where,
is peak current that flows from Vdd to ground
is the time period where both transitions are on

Vdd is supply voltage
f is the switching frequency
Total short circuit power is

Dynamic Power dissipation[25]
Toggling of the device as well as the power consumption of the interconnect capacitances contribute to
the dynamic power. The total dynamic power is the sum of all the
2
power of the line capacitance
and repeaters.
is dependent on the size and the number of repeaters. When the repeater number
decreases the size increases.
is proportional to line capacitance.

7. Test equipment

Figure 26 DCG Emiscope[30]
DCG Emiscope, Laser Voltage Imaging and Probing (LVx)[30]
The machine was the DCG Emiscope. It provided a non invasive method to test the circuitry. The main
function of the equipment is for timing analysis and time resolved emission.
Laser Voltage Imaging (LVI), shows the physical locations of transistors that are active at a specific
frequency. LVI can be tuned to target frequencies, and may also be used to show exactly where to get
the best signal strength for specific waveform measurements.
The Laser Scanning Microscope (LSM) visually maps locations of transistors. By concentrating on a
specific area of the DUT, one can scan for the dominant frequencies. LVI locates the transistors and thus
maps circuits operating at those frequencies. LVI also enables signal tracing through circuitry, and even
non-periodic signals can be monitored.

8. Noise
Flicker Noise[31]
Flicker noise is present in all active devices as well as some passive devices. Flicker noise is a low
frequency noise which occurs when a direct current is flowing.

Figure 27 Flicker Noise[31]
The power spectral density of flicker noise is
S(f) =

K, EF are constants
1/ f noise is ubiquitous. As of now there is still no single mechanism to account for flicker noise. 1/f noise
cannot be predicted from dc or other device characteristics and can only be computed through noise
measurements. The main focus of the project is on flicker noise.
Shot Noise[31]
Shot noise arises due to the random flow of carriers across a potential barrier. Shot noise was
documented by Schottky as random fluctuations in the plate current as a result of the flow of discrete
charges. The fluctuation of the current I is
2
=(
)
2

Shot noise is given by the Schottky formula as
2
= 2q
f
Q is electronic charge
f is the bandwidth in Hz over which the noise is measured
Thermal Noise[31]
Even in the absence of current, thermal noise is present in a resistor. The resistor should be in thermal
equilibrium. The physical mechanism that causes this source of noise is from the collision of the free
moving electrons against the thermally agitated atoms. The effect is best pictured as similar to Brownian
motion.
Brownian motion states that for a system in equilibrium, the average energy associated with each
degree of freedom of the system is
2
, k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the temperature in Kelvin. A
suspended particle has 3 degrees of freedom (x, y, z axis). Each stores a mean energy of
2
. The electron
gas in semiconductors is modeled to observe the rules of Brownian motion. Therefore the mean square
noise current in an inductor L is given by
1
2
L
2
=
1
2
kT
For a capacitor C, the mean square noise voltage is
1
2
2
=
1
2
kT
For a resistor R, the mean square thermal noise current would be
2
= 4kT
1
f
f is the bandwidth in Hz
Mean square thermal noise voltage would be
2
= 4kTR f
This equation is strictly valid only in equilibrium. This can only be met when no current is passing
through the resistor.

9. Time Frequency Analysis
A signal is normally analysed through the time or frequency domain. The time domain would give
information such as amplitude while frequency analysis would show the changes that take place. The
combination of running in both time and frequency is akin to reading musical notes on a score sheet.
The time frequency analysis allows users to determine a certain effect at a particular time. Fourier
transform is the fundamental bridge between the two domains. Fourier Transform will provide the
frequencies within the signal duration, however it does not provide the time it happens. In real world
situations, many signals vary with time such as acoustic signal, biomedical signal and seismic signal.
Hence it is necessary to go beyond from individual analysis on the time and frequency domain to the
one on time-frequency joint domain.
The Time-Frequency analysis helps the user to understand where the frequency is changing with time.
This chapter presents the basic time-frequency distribution characteristic. This is followed by brief
description of some existing time-frequency distributions.
Introduction
The main aim of using Time-Frequency analysis is to devise a function that will describe the
amplitude/energy density of a signal simultaneously in both the time and frequency domain.
Basic idea
The figure below demonstrates an example of time-frequency analysis. Fourier transform would not be
able to show the difference between the four different data sets. However, from the time-frequency
plane, we can have a clear idea of the signal component distribution in both time and frequency domain.

Figure 28 Time-frequency distributions of four different signals with similar frequency components[32]

There are multiple methods to do the mapping of the two domains. First, it is possible to construct
time-frequency atoms to decompose the signal. This is the easiest. Short time Fourier transform is
formed based on this principle. The second way is to obtaining the energy/power distribution of the
original signal in the time-frequency domain. The Wigner-Ville distribution is an example of such an
application and the main focus of the project.
Uncertainty principle
It is not possible to achieve high resolution in both the time and frequency domain. This is mainly
because of the uncertainty principle.
If TF(t,) is a time-frequency distribution, given that,
> < = dtd t TF t t

t
) , ( ) (
2 2

> < =
dtd t TF ) , ( ) (
2 2

where
t
2
: standard derivation in time domain
f
2
: standard derivation in frequency domain

t

where is a universal constant. The smallest possible is .
Uncertainty principle demonstrates the limitations of achieving high resolution for both time and
frequency components. By this principle, only time or frequency can be chosen to have high resolution
[32]
Application of Time-Frequency Distribution
There are many fields that currently employ the use of time frequency distribution for analysis of data
sets. These include industries such as medicine, music and telecommunications.

Multi component Signal
When analyzing signals with multiple frequencies, the time frequency analysis would be able to separate
the data and give a clearer picture. It shows the different frequencies that are present in the signal and
when they are changing. A simple example of the signal will be the speech acoustic signal. Time-
frequency distribution has been widely used in blind-separation in multi component signal with the help
of array sensor [33-35].

Frequency Dependent Physical Events
Certain physical events are different to analyze using just time or frequency domain. To be able to
observe the duration of the change of the signal of a specific frequency, there is more information about
the signal to make a more informed judgment. Biomedical applications are common; especially heart
ECGs [36-38]. Time-frequency distribution would allow doctors to observe abnormal activities or
abnormal durations and make a better diagnosis.
Instantaneous Frequency and Instantaneous Power Spectrum
One of the important concepts closely related to time-frequency distribution is Instantaneous Frequency
(IF) defined as:

2
) (
) , (
) (
2
1
) (
t s
df f t IPS f
dt
t d
t f
i

= =

where f
i
(t) is the instantaneous frequency at time t, (t) is the phase of the signal under consideration,
and IPS refer to Instantaneous Power Spectrum. The bilinear time-frequency distribution combines the
signals IPS at any particular time within the signal duration. These are some parameters not obvious in a
conventional Fourier Transform. Applications of IF had been found in several areas in communications
systems or maritime applications like estimation of Doppler velocity [39] or military applications such as
landmine detection[40].
Desirable Properties of Time-Frequency Distribution
Time-frequency distribution comes in various forms and is not a unique distribution. It can be
constructed with various methods. It is always desirable that there is minimal loss of information when
performing an operation to obtain the distribution. The properties are documented in the subsequent
section [32, 41].

Correct total energy property
There is conservation of energy and the total energy of the distribution should be the same as that as
the signal

= = = d S dt t s dt d t TF E
2 2
) ( ) ( ) , (
The total energy criteria will be fulfilled if the distribution satisfies the limits, however the reverse
situation is not true.

Correct marginal properties
At a particular instance in time, the instantaneous energy will be given through the summation of the
energy distribution for all the frequencies. Likewise, for any frequency, the summation over time will
yield the energy density spectrum. Hence, a time-frequency analysis would ideally be
=
2
) ( ) , ( t s d t TF
=
2
) ( ) , ( S dt t TF
where P(t,) : time-frequency representative.
s(t) : signal
S() : Fourier transform of signal

This is usually called time and frequency marginal conditions.
Reality property
For all signal, s(t), we have

R t R t TF , , ) , (

for TF(t,) is the time-frequency distribution of s(t).
Invertibility
The time frequency distribution must be unique in order for the original to be recovered when it
undergoes transformation. This can only be achieved while no signal information if lost during the time
frequency transforming operation.
Symmetry property
If
) , ( ) (
) , ( ) (
*
*
t TF t s
t TF t s
s
TFD
s
TFD

then we have,
) , ( ) , (
*
*
= t TF t TF
s s

Time and frequency shift invariance property
) , ( ) , ( ) ( ) (
0 0
t t TF t TF then t t s t s if
) , ( ) , ( ) ( ) (
0 0
t TF t TF then S S if
) , ( ) , ( ) ( ) (
0 0 0
0

t t TF t TF then t t s e t s if
t j

Linear scaling property
) ( ) (
1
) ( at s a t s if
a
S
a
S
sc sc
=
|
.
|
\
|
=

the scaled distribution,
|
.
|
\
|
=
a
at TF t TF
sc
, ) , (
and it satisfies,
2
2
) ( ) ( ) , (
= = at s a t s d t TF
sc sc

2
2 1
) ( ) , (
|
.
|
\
|
= =
a
S
a
S d t TF
sc sc

Moyals condition
) , ( ) (
) , ( ) (
2
1
2
1
t TF t s
t TF t s
s
TFD
s
TFD

2
*
2 1
*
) ( ) ( ) , ( ) , (
2 1
= dt t s t s dtd t TF t TF
s s

Convolution property
) , ( ) ( ) (
) , ( ) (
) , ( ) (
2 1
2
1
2 1
2
1
t TF t s t s
t TF t s
t TF t s
s s
TFD
s
TFD
s
TFD

) , ( ) , ( ) , (
2 1 2 1
t TF t TF t TF
s t s s s
=

*
t
stands for convolution with respect to the time variable.
Positivity property
For all s(t), we have
TF(t,) 0
Frequency/time support property
The signal and the corresponding TFD should have the same frequency band and time duration; this
property is called frequency and time support.
TF(t,) = 0 for t outside (t
1
,

t
2
) if s(t) is zero outside (t
1
,

t
2
)
TF(t,) = 0 for outside (
1
,

2
) if S() is zero outside (
1
,

2
)
Types of Time-Frequency Distribution
All time-frequency representation (except Wavelet Transform) can be obtained from
+
+ =

d dud e u s u s t TF
u j j t j
) , ( )
2
1
( )
2
1
( *
4
1
) , (
2

where (,) is the kernel.
Table 2 Different distributions and their kernels[32]
Name Kernel : (,) Distribution : C(t,)
General class (,)
+
+

d dud e u s u s
u j j t j
) , ( )
2
1
( )
2
1
( *
4
1
2

Short Time
Fourier
Transform

+ du e u h u h
u j
)
2
1
( )
2
1
( *

2
) ( ) (
2
1

d t h s e
j

Page
j
e
2
'
' ) ' (
2
1
dt e t s
t
t
t j

Choi-Williams
/
2 2

dud u s u s e
j t u
)
2
1
( )
2
1
( *
/
1
4
1
2 2
/ ) (
2
2 / 3
+

Wigner 1

d t s t s e
j
)
2
1
( )
2
1
( *
2
1

In this chapter only the more popular representatives, namely Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT),
Wavelet Transform (WT) and Wigner Ville distribution (WVD), are discussed.
Short-Time Fourier Transform
The short-time Fourier Transform (STFT) is one of the most widely used time-frequency distribution due
to its simplicity. A conventional Fourier transform is performed within a windowed. The window
function is shifted slowly to construct the full picture. The mathematic evaluation is as follows,

) ( ) ( ) ( t h s s
t
=
where s
t
() : windowed signal segment
s(t) : signal
h(t) : window function
: running time

the windowed signal have the following characteristic
s
t
() ~ s() for near t
~ 0 for far away from t
The window function gives a new set of signal which put more emphasis on the signal within the time of
interest, t. By taking the Fourier transform on this windowed signal, we thus derive the distribution of
frequency within the time of interest,

=
=
d t h s e
d s e t STFT
j
t
j
) ( ) (
2
1
) (
2
1
) , (

The power distribution of the STFT is called Spectrogram, (SP)
2
2
) ( ) (
2
1
) , ( ) , (
= =

d t h s e t STFT t SP
j

Figure 29 Short-time Fourier Transform[32]

Wavelet Transform
The wavelet theory was introduced in 1964 by Calderon [42] for the studying integral operators. It is an
alternative to linear time-frequency distribution. The fundamental idea of a wavelet transform is to
replace the frequency shifting operation in STFT by a time-scaling operation,

d
a
t
h s
a
a t WT

|
.
|
\
|
= * ) (
1
) , (
where h(t), basic wavelet, is localized in time, and a is dilation (scale) parameter.

Figure 30 Wavelet Transform[42]
There are various wavelet functions including Morlet function, and Mexican hat function. The original
signal can be recovered from WT if the basic wavelet satisfies the admissibility condition,

1 ) (
2
=

f
df
f H ( 3.28 )
where H(f) is the Fourier transform of basic wavelet, h(t).

Figure 31 Basic Wavelet function Mexican hat function[32]

Figure 32 Morlet function[32]

The power distribution of the wavelet transform is called Scalogram (SC),

2
2
) (
1
) , ( ) , (
|
.
|
\
|
= =
d
a
t
h s
a
a t WT t SC
According to the Uncertainty Principle, there is a tradeoff between time and frequency resolution. For
STFT, once the window is chosen, the resolution is constant over the entire time-frequency plane
whereas for wavelets this is not the case. The resolution changes with the analyzed frequency even
when a fix window is chosen.

Figure 33 Compared time-frequency resolution of spectrograms and scalograms. (a) Spectrogram with window neither short
nor long; (b) Spectrogram with long window; (c) Spectrogram with short window; (d) Scalograms. [32]
The dark areas in the above figure represent the resolution scale at the time-frequency for Spectrogram
(a), (b (c) and Scalogram (Figure (d)). In the spectrogram, the resolution scale is fixed for each point only
after the window size is fixed. However, for Scalogram, given a window size, the resolution scale is time
and frequency dependent. Nevertheless, both distributions follow the Uncertainty Principle.

Wigner-Ville Distribution
The Wigner-Ville distribution is another tool in the time frequency analysis toolbox. It provides a straight
forward derivation of the power density. Unlike linear time-frequency distribution, it does not take extra
steps of squaring the linear component. The distribution is represented as

+ =

d e t s t s t WVD
j
)
2
1
( )
2
1
( *
2
1
) , (

Wigner-Ville takes Fourier Transform of the signal product is present in the past and future time.
Wigner-Ville distribution, unlike STFT, weight equally for far and near times and this causes it to become
a highly non-localized distribution.

There are two major disadvantages to using this distribution, nonpositivity and cross interference term.
The non-positivity makes the interpretation of the distribution unrealistic. However, because the Wigner
Ville Distribution yields very high resolution in both time and frequency domain, this is considered an
acceptable tradeoff. There has also been work done to overcome them and it will be discussed later.
Comparison of Different Time-Frequency Analysis
The desirable property
The table below documents the desirable properties, WVD is superior compared to the spectrogram and
the scalogram. By satisfying those desirable properties, WVD retain the integrity in the signal
interpretation.

Table 3 Desirable Properties[32]
Spectrogram Scalogram WVD
Correct Energy 2 2 2
Correct Marginal 2
Reality 2 2 2
Invertibility 2
Shift Invariance 2
Linear Scaling 2
Moyals condition 2
Convolution 2
Positivity 2 2
Time support 2
Frequency support 2

Anti-lasing smoothing
When converting short-time Fourier transform (STFT) and Wavelet transform (WT) into their power
distribution form, anti-lasing are introduced [43].The Wigner Ville Distribution does not share this
problem. The anti-lasing is heavily dependent on the nature of the signals components and the window
function. With the implication of smoothing window, the anti-lasing in WVD can be effectively reduced.
This is not possible for Spectrogram and Scalogram. The reduction of the anti-lasing can only be done by
choosing a suitable window function and depending on the nature of signal component. This presents a
problem. The knowledge of the signal is required beforehand and because of this limitation, it can only
exist in the realm of academia and not have much practical value.
Time/frequency resolution
Spectrogram resolution tends to be lower than that of Scalogram and WVD[44, 45]. The time and
frequency resolution of spectrogram is restricted by uncertainty principle. A better resolution in time
can be achieved in the expense of that of frequency, and vice-versa. However, for WVD, the separated
smoothing effects can allow for an improvement in the resolution of time and frequency component
individually, hence a better overall resolution can be obtained.
Discrete Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville Distribution (SPWD)
Wigner-Ville is also known as a bilinear or 2nd order time-frequency distribution. The distribution gives a
distribution of the power spectrum directly. Wigner-Ville distribution has found popularity in multiple
applications including various forms of engineering and Biomedical fields.
Wigner-Ville distribution was first introduced by Wigner [46]but it was Ville [47] who created a practical
application and incorporated it into signal analysis. Wigner laid the groundwork of the mathematics
behind the distribution, while Ville found and applied the application of the mathematical relation to
signal analysis. This is actually the first distribution introduced for time-frequency analysis and have
been studied for a long time.

Wigner-Ville Distribution
Wigner-Ville distribution has found its wide applications in the nonstationary signal processing [48-
51].Once again, the distribution is used because of the high resolution in both the time and frequency
domains. It also satisfies the conditions for accurate marginal property giving an accurate total energy
property
In Biomedical field, Wigner-Ville distribution applications are widespread. It has been intensively
developed for the analysis of the heart sound and murmur [52-54], blood pressure[55],
electrocardiogram (ECG) study [56, 57].As discussed previously, communications engineering also make
use of this powerful distribution for analysis in Radar systems [58, 59]. Likewise the time-frequency
distribution of Wigner-Ville is also used in the acoustic signal analysis [60-62].
Theory of the distribution
For a given signal of interest s(t), the instantaneous correlations can be expressed as follows [63],
)
2
( * )
2
( ) , (

+ = t s t s t R

For conventional method, the average of this instantaneous correlation,

= dt t R R ) , ( ) ( , is taken
and thus the information of time t is lost. In Wigner-Ville distribution a Fourier transform is performed
without the averaging of correlation function,

d e t s t s
d e t R t WVD
j
j

+ =
=
)
2
( * )
2
(
) , ( ) , (

Similarly, if the signal consists of, for instance, 2 components, the corresponding WVD is shown as
follows,

+ + =

d e t s
d
t s t xWVD
j
)
2
( * ) ( ) , (
2 1

It is sometimes refers as cross-Wigner-Ville distribution, xWVD.
General properties
Symmetry
For a real signal, a symmetrical Wigner-Ville distribution can be obtained in both frequency and time
plane. It means,

spectral real for t W t W
signal real for t W t W
) , ( ) , (
) , ( ) , (

=
=

Signal inversion
One of the very attractive features of the Wigner-Ville distribution is the uniqueness. As a result, it is
possible to recover the original signal given its Wigner-Ville distribution. The inversion can be done by
follows,

= df e f t W
s
t s
tf j 2
2
1
) , (
) 0 ( *
1
) (
Instantaneous frequency
Traditional definition of the instantaneous frequency is through the first derivation of the phase
function[58],

dt
t d
t f
i
) (
2
1
) (

=

However the multiple frequencies signal can provide more information versus the traditional definition
only provides single frequency value.
Wigner-Ville distribution, instead, provide a weighted average instantaneous frequency with integrity at
time t, which take into consideration the existence of multiple frequency component of the signal,

d t WVD
d t WVD
t f
i
) , (
) , (
2
1
) (

Negative distribution
One of the shortcomings of Wigner-Ville distribution is their non-positivity. The negative power value
makes interpreting the WVD difficult. It is a worthwhile tradeoff to spend some time to eliminate the
negativities by either excluding them or taking an absolute value of WVD.
Anti-lasing
Wigner-Ville distribution is a distribution relates to signal correlation function. When 2 frequency
components are present, one term reflects the correlation of two signal components. This term exists in
the middle of the 2 components in the time-frequency plane, as shown below.
The amplitude of cross term may exceed the amplitude of the original signal and it cause a distortion of
the interpretation of the original signal.
A lot of research has been carried out to overcome this issue. One of the most direct ways is to convert
the real signal into an analytical signal. Analytical signal is derived for the mathematical convenient in
signal processing application by turning the amplitude of negative frequency into zero. Details of
analytical signal will be given in next section.

Figure 34 Crossterm interference of WVD; (a) WVD of the sum of two Gaussian functions [63]. (b) the crossterm in the middle
of the two sinusoidal function [32]

Sampling for Wigner-Ville distribution
Minimum sampling frequency
Given a real signal of interest, s(t) and allow the signal to be bandlimited to frequency |f
max
| <
Bandwidth/2. This condition must be met to satisfy the Nyquist sampling theorem. The minimum
sampling frequency should be equal to the double of the faster frequency component or Bandwidth of
the signal, i.e. Nyquist Rate R
N
= 2f
max
.
For a single component signal, the sampling frequency is simply equal to the R
N
as usual. However if
signal consists for few frequency components, a double of the Nyquist sampling Rate is required. This is
illustrated [64]

Figure 35 The worst-case signal component for the fastest oscillating frequency [64]
In the above, it shows the Fourier Transform of a signal which consists of two components, S
1
(f) and S
2
(f).
S
1
(f) and S
2
(f) are the Fourier Transform of the signal components s
1
(t) and s
2
(t) respectively.

t
f
j
e t s t s
2
2
2
0 1
max
) ( ) (

= ,
t
f
j
e t s t s
2
2
2
0 2
max
) ( ) (
=

where is the bandwidth of signal component.
By placing these 2 signals at the edge of bandwidth, the worst case or highest oscillating frequency
can be obtained. The WVD distribution of the interference between them is shown as follows,

] ) 2 ( 2 cos[ 2 ) , (
max
) (
0 2 1
t f WVD f t WVD
s
I
s s
=

The oscillating frequency is 2f
max
-, hence the sampling frequency f
sampling
2 ( 2f
max
- ) 4f
max
which is
two times of Nyquist Rate (2f
max
). In conclusion, for Wigner-Ville distribution, a double of Nyquist Rate
is needed for sampling of a real signal.
Analytical signal
Theory
Given a real signal, s(t), and its spectrum, S(), the complex signal, z(t), can be defined as follows,

d e S t z
t j
=
0
) (
2
1
2 ) (

It simply means taking an inverse Fourier Transform of the spectrum in positive frequency. The factor 2
is needed because z(t) complies of the symmetrical negative frequency plane.

+ =
+ =
(
+ =
=
=

'
'
) ' (
) (
'
) ' ( '
'
) ' ( ) ' (
1
' ) ' (
1
' ) ' (
2
1
2 ) (
0
) ' (
0
) ' (
0
'
dt
t t
t s j
t s
t t
j
t t d e where dt
t t
j
t t t s
d dt e t s
d dt e e t s t z
t t j
t t j
t j t j

The second part of the last term is the Hilbert Transform,

'
'
) ' ( 1
) ( )] ( [ dt
t t
t s
t s t s H

= =

Hence the analytical signal is as follows,

)] ( [ ) ( ) ( t s jH t s t z + =
There are many reasons why an analytical signal is used for WVD and other signal processing, the
following are some of them;
It gives a correct indication of the physical situation. For the real signals spectrum will give an incorrect
average frequency of zero as shown.

Figure 36 Real signal (a) and analytical signal (b) spectrum. <> is the average frequency[32]

The average frequency of any signal is found to be zero, due to the existence of a negative frequency
component. However, by omitting the negative frequency component (analytical signal) the average
frequency will be found at the middle of the signal as shown.
The fundamental definition of instantaneous frequency involved with phase derivation, with the
complex analytical signal. The phase function of the signal can be easily calculated.
Likewise it helps to avoid doubling of the fundamental Nyquist sampling frequency as well as reduce the
anti-lasing. This would reduce distortions on the Wigner-Ville distribution when multi-component signal
is analyzed.

Figure 37 The reduction of Wigner-Ville distributions anti-lasing by applying the analytical signal[65]. Signal on the left is real
whilst signal on the right is analytical[65]
Smoothed Wigner-Ville Distribution
The cross term interference in WD is mainly due to the multi component of the signal. This presents a
major limitation for the usefulness of this distribution. The number of the anti-lasing, m, increases
quadratically, m =
|
|
.
|
\
|
2
n
, with the number of signal components, n. As a result, they will often mask out
the original signal. Research has been conducted in the amplitude reduction of these cross term. Other
than the conversion to analytical signal, using a smoothing function is another viable alternative. The
smoothing can be done on time and/or frequency variables. The result distribution is called Smoothed
Wigner-Ville Distribution (SWD).
Let us denote the smoothing function as (t,) and its two-dimension Fourier Transform function
as(,) [66].

dtd e t
t j ) (
) , ( ) , (

=

which is called ambiguity kernel.
To ensure that the insertion of the smoothing function does not distort the original Wigner-Ville
distribution, here are some requirements of (t,),
Linear and independent of time and frequency,

= ' ' ) ' , ' ( ) ' , ' ( ) , ( d dt t WD t t t SWD

Smoothing function can be treated as a shift-invariant function for the Wigner-Ville distribution.
Normalization, to guarantee the correct total energy property

= = = 1 ) , ( ) 0 , 0 ( ) , (
max
dtd t
Real value, R t ) , ( , to make sure SWD is real also.
Below, the two signal components, separated by
12
and
12
, are plotted at t-f domain. Let us illustrate
the anti-lasing reduction effect through smoothing by looking at the kernel ambiguity function,(,). If
we plot (,) according to and (correlative domain), the crossterm interference will be located
away from the origin, as shown in Figure 3.10(b). Whereas the signal, having a zero and , will be
positioned at the central of - plane.

Figure 38 (a) t-f plane of 2 signal components, (b) Corelative-domain analysis of their anti-lasing [66]
The cross term interference will be attenuated by the factor 1 , ( ) , (
12 12 12 12
= .
However the attenuation through smoothing may not work well if the signal and the cross term
interference are closely spaced.
A highly attenuated SWD can be achieved with (,) as narrow as possible around the origin of -
plane. Due to the Fourier Transform relationship of (t,) and (,), a narrow (,) will result in a
broad (t,). And this broad (t,) will result in a spread of the signal component and hence a loss of
time-frequency concentration of the signal. There is a fundamental tradeoff of interference attenuation
versus time-frequency concentration. As a result, a suitable design of the smooth function is important
and careless choice may result in low signal concentration yet without effective reduction of anti-lasing.
Hence, the separation of the time and frequency smoothing will be desirable as different degree and
function of window can be applied for different signal structure. This separation can be obtained by the
formulation of Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville Distribution.
Pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution
Pseudo Wigner-Ville (PWD) distribution is a short-time version of the Wigner-Ville distribution with a
running window h(t)[67], known as frequency smoothing window.

d e h t s t s t PWD
j
s
+ =
2
*
)
2
( )
2
( )
2
( ) , (

To satisfy the correct total energy property, we normally desire a h(t) with real-valued, even, normalized
(h(0) = 1 ) and finite-length, i.e.

2 0 ) (
h
T t if t h > =

where T
h
is the window length. Wigner-Ville distribution can be viewed as a PWD with h(t) having a
infinitive window length and constant height, h(t) 1.
PWD can reduce the anti-lasing occur in conventional Wigner-Ville distribution. To illustrate this, let us
express PWD in following form [66],

=
'
' ) ' , ( ) ' ( ) , (
f
h s
d t WVD t PWD
where

= =

d e h WVD
j
h h
)
2
( ) , 0 (
2

A previous form of SWD was seen earlier. Therefore, pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution and the SWD are
somewhat interchangeable. The smoothing only occurs with respect to the frequency variable, since t=0.
As a result, we can preserve the time concentration and yet attenuate the interference due to the
oscillation in frequency direction.
Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution
The finite-length window applied for pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution has done the smoothing in the
frequency. Insertion of a time-smoothing window function, g(t) will yield a Smoothed pseudo Wigner-
Ville distribution (SPWD). It is defined as follows,

=
=
' ' ) ' , ' ( ) ' ( ) ' (
' ) , ' ( ) ' ( ) , (
'

d dt t WD t t g
dt t PWD t t g t SPWD
h
t

g(t) is a smoothing function for time direction, which serve as a low-pass function here. The separation
of the smoothing operation can be further illustrated below. (C) describes a complete smoothing effect
for both time and frequency domain.

Figure 39 Effective support of ambiguity kernel: (a) WVD (no smoothing), (b) PWD, (c) SPWD

Discrete Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville Distribution
Data collection was done in a discrete format and a corresponding discrete version of the above formula
for smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution is needed.
Given a discrete function s(n), the discrete-Wigner-Ville distribution (DWD) is as shown [68],

( )
=
+ =
m
m j m n z m n z n DWD 2 exp ) ( * ) ( ) , (
where z(n) is the analytical signal for s(n), n is the time-index. However this definition of DWD suggests a
noncausal operation, which requires the knowledge of the signal in all time. This can be overcome by
introducing a running window function just like what we do in pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution, the
discrete version of PWD is as follows [55],
+ =
|
.
|
\
|
+ =
1
1
2
2
1
2
exp ) ( * ) ( ) ( ) , (
N
N k
N
km j
k n z k n z k h N m n DPWD

where h(k) : frequency smoothing window with the length of 2N-1.
m : frequency index.
N : time index
z(n) : analytical signal
After inserting the time smoothing function, we have SPWD in discrete form as follows,
|
.
|
\
|
(
(
+ + + =

+ =
+ =
N
km j
k p n z k p n z p g k h N m n DSPWD
N
N k
M
M p
2
exp ) ( * ) ( ) ( ) ( ) , (
1
1
1
1
2
2
1

g(p) : time smoothing window with the length of 2M-1.
This equation is the complete algorithm for the Smoothed pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution in discrete
form.

8. Data collection
As stated in the literature review, the circuitry of interest is the repeater circuit. The circuitry is
identified after running a Laser Voltage Image (LVI) and scanning for the transistors that are toggling at
the frequency of desire. Once the location is identified, we zoom into the circuitry first using the solid
immersions lens and followed by a digital zoom.

Figure 40 10X magnification

Figure 41 SIL Magnification

Figure 42 Digital 7X after SIL

Figure 43 Identification using LVI

The test equipment Emiscope III collects voltage amplitude data over a specified period of time. The
time window is normally spaced into 1000 equal segments, also known as bins. For this experiment, the
window was set to 1ns giving 1000 bins of 1ps.
The data waveform is averaged over 15 minutes to remove as much noise as possible. During the
averaging only overlap data is retained, therefore signal would become stronger and stronger over time
versus noise which is random. 1000 data points are collected and this data is filtered through a moving
average function to obtain a trend line. The moving period is selected to provide the best fit for the
waveform. Through trial and error, the moving average of 20 points is considered the best fit for this
system.
Generally moving average calculations are used widely in financial calculations especially in stock market
analysis to track trends. Simple moving averages are normally plotted together with exponential moving
averages to determine distinct patterns. The analysis does not involve data of different time periods,
only within a single window of 1ns; therefore a simple moving average is enough. The mathematical
argument for moving average is illustrated as follows.
Given a sequence {
, the n-moving average of the sequence is {
+1
. The n-moving average is
calculated as
=
1
+1
=1

Once a trend line is established, the data is then put through a piecewise linear manipulation for ease of
analysis of the data. It becomes obvious that the curve can be broken down into three sections. The first
and last are relatively flat, while the middle section displays a gradient (positive for rise time and
negative for fall time).

Figure 44 Generic example of moving average
The piecewise linear approximation of the trend line should follow a function of:
f(x) =
0 <
+ < <
>

0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

Number of bins
voltage
where Y is the maximum amplitude,
a, b and c are constants
The breakpoints are determined by the following criteria:
For the first part where x < a and for the last part where x > b, the gradient must be 0 or close to 0.
For the center portion, the magnitude of the gradient must be adjusted until a maximum value is
obtained.
The two criteria are satisfied through trial and error by setting a start point and going through an
iteration of incrementing values and decrementing values until the optimum point is found. Due to time
constraints, the final points are rounded off to the nearest 10 value.
The data is further normalized by shifting the waveform to the origin. The first part of the piecewise
linear curve is averaged to determine the offset from the origin. The offset difference is added to the
curve to normalize all the curves to start from the point of origin 0. This allows for the amplitude values
to be compared.
Metrics of comparison
When the project was planned, the consideration the SNR, gradient of the rise/fall time, amplitude and
rise/ fall time were considered as the standard for comparison.
Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR)
The SNR is a measure of the signal power to noise power
SNR =
= 10
10

= 10
10
(
)
2

= 20
10

The SNR is a good measure of the strength of the signal that is being transferred. The standard deviation
of the flat parts of the trend line is the basis of measuring the SNR. SNR was not investigated further
because of the difficulty in reproducing the results. The deviation of the values differed too much for
different data points and the underlying reason was difficult to pinpoint. Therefore, the SNR was not
further explored and is left for future work.

Gradient
The rise time is an absolute number. The gradient is better able to provide the rate of chance of gradient
versus time. The curves are further normalized to show the same amplitude to determine a change in
the gradient. The gradient would have provided a clearer picture concerning the rate of change;
however, once again, it was difficult to reproduce the results. It was difficult to determine where the
signal started to rise or fall based on the linear piecewise approximation and the margin of error was
very drastic from data point to data point. Hopefully this can be further explored in future work.

Figure 45 Generic waveform

Figure 46 Demonstration of SNR

Amplitude
The amplitude is based on the difference of the highest point of the trend line minus the lowest point of
the trendline. The curves are normalized to the origin. The absolute mean of the last linear part of the
piecewise approximation would equate to the amplitude. However, because both sets of linear
approximations displays a gradient, the equations of both lines are equated to calculate the interception
point and that is assumed to be the amplitude.
Rise time/ Fall time
There are many different definitions for rise (fall) time. This could range from the time taken to rise from
10% to 90%. However for simplicity, the rise and fall time is taken to be the difference between the end
of the first linear piecewise approximation line and the beginning of the last line.
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 100 200 300
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

Number of bins
voltage
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 100 200 300
V
o
l
t
a
g
e

Number of bins
voltage

Figure 47 Definitions for rise/ fall time[69]

Observations
General
This section would discuss the effects of the different inverters in the repeater circuitry. The figure
below illustrates the terminology in the following sections. Two 32nm SOI chips were used. Chip 1 was
polished to around 98 micron thickness, while chip 2 was polished to around 115 microns thickness.

Figure 48 NMOS and PMOS of Repeater
PMOS4
NMOS4
NMOS
PMOS

PMOS

NMOS2
PMOS

Figure 49 NMOS2 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz

Figure 50 NMOS4 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz
y = 0.0787x + 156.38
y = 1.6041x - 510.46
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0664x + 107.93
y = 1.517x - 665.48
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins

Figure 51 PMOS1 1V Laser Power 269 10Mhz

y = 0.0551x + 23.657
y = 0.4662x - 189.74
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0712x + 57.113
y = 1.0267x - 463.08
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


It can be observed that there is a slight gradient in the last section of the linear piecewise approximation
when it should be flat. This could arise due to a variety of reasons such as leakage or short channel
effects.
The sizing of the inverters does not seem to have any discernible pattern with regards to rise time. The
amplitude however seems to show a negative correlation with the increment of NMOS sizing and a
positive correlation with an increase in PMOS sizing. The only data that falls out of this observation is
Chip 2 PMOS4. The contact between the SIL and the die loosened during the collection and resulted in a
loss of focus.
Table 4 Comparison of Rise Time and Amplitude with the different inverter sizes
Chip1 Rise Time Amplitude Chip2 Rise Time Amplitude
NMOS2 145 190 NMOS2 120 103
NMOS4 130 143 NMOS4 130 88
PMOS1 150 46 PMOS1 200 40
PMOS2 115 89 PMOS2 170 95
PMOS4 180 91 PMOS4 150 64

For the comparison between laser power ratings, voltage and frequency, the focus will be on the
NMOS4 inverter and the PMOS4 inverter.
y = 0.07x + 63.019
y = 0.5941x - 239.38
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
Laser power
The laser power is provided by the manufacturer of the equipment DCG. The values of laser power
range from 0.35mW to 19.8mW. The range of values used during the experiment was between 1.16mW
(240) to 3.15mW (269).The final power was based on the attenuation value of the laser ranging from
196 to 330. The final value when decreasing power and increasing laser power are totally different.
Extreme caution was used to ensure that laser powers were consistent by ensuring the laser power was
only measured when there was an increment of laser power.

Figure 54 Laser power at 240




The rise time of the laser power seems to increment with higher power. Chip2 at 279 is an exception
and once again due to a loss of focus the data collected seems to be inaccurate. The increase in rise time
could be attributed to an increase in temperature of the chip due to the power supplied by the laser.
This in turn caused the internal atoms to become more agitated and created more resistance. With
regards to the amplitude, it is very consistent upward increment with increasing laser power.
Table 5 Comparison between Chip 1 and Chip 2 for Laser Power
NMOS
Chip1 Chip2
Laser
Power
Rise Time Amplitude Laser
Power
Rise Time Amplitude
240 140 38 240 120 51
269 150 137 269 150 90
279 190 186 279 100 168

Figure 58 Chip 1 NMOS4 1V Laser Power 240 10Mhz
y = 0.0402x + 20.833
y = 0.518x - 229.62
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins



y = 0.0641x + 109.9
y = 1.3259x - 576.67
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0599x + 161.49
y = 1.2933x - 537.8
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


y = 0.028x + 40.666
y = 0.4575x - 173.75
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0775x + 59.54
y = 0.8197x - 319.71
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


Table 6 Comparison between Chip 1 and Chip 2 for Laser Power
PMOS
Chip1 Chip2
Rise Time Amplitude Rise Time Amplitude
240 230 44 240 100 12
269 200 98 269 180 65
279 140 135 279 140 69

y = 0.0382x + 153.55
y = 2.3596x - 975.35
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins

Figure 64 Chip 1 PMOS4 1V Laser Power 240 10Mhz

y = 0.0149x + 38.307
y = 0.1823x - 73.092
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0534x + 78.005
y = 0.4806x - 182.46
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


y = 0.1272x + 95.535
y = 1.6179x - 787.28
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0242x + 10.397
y = 0.0513x - 4.5752
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins



y = 0.0159x + 59.066
y = 0.4745x - 201.79
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0526x + 43.494
y = 0.8152x - 407.43
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
Voltage

Figure 70 Voltage at 0.9V




The general trend for the increase in voltage leads to an increase in amplitude. Even in the LSM mode, it
can be seen that the intensity of the signal increases and it saturates and overflows into nearby circuitry.
This makes sense because when the supply voltage is increased the voltage swing provided to the
internal circuitry is also increased. There seems to be no discernible pattern to the rise time of the
circuitry and no conclusions can be drawn.
Table 7 Comparison between Chip 1 and Chip 2 for Voltage
Rise Time Amplitude Rise Time Amplitude
0.9V 160 109 0.9V 80 25
1.0V 130 143 1.0V 120 88
1.1V 100 149 1.1V 100 112
1.2V 130 167 1.2V 90 79

Figure 74 Chip 1 NMOS4 0.9V Laser Power 269 10Mhz
y = 0.0502x + 85.374
y = 0.9833x - 463.9
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


y = 0.0664x + 107.93
y = 1.517x - 665.48
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0367x + 137.23
y = 1.3049x - 417.86
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


y = 0.0617x + 140.64
y = 1.6348x - 710.68
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0703x + 71.193
y = 1.1934x - 553.28
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins


y = 0.0775x + 58.54
y = 0.8106x - 316.1
-300
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0479x + 31.255
y = 0.2135x - 40.643
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins



y = 0.084x + 57.353
y = 1.0369x - 472.67
-200
-100
0
100
200
300
400
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0177x + 56.519
y = 0.5863x - 261.69
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
Frequency
In general the frequency does not contribute much to the change in rise time nor amplitude of the
results. The slight fluctuation could be caused by the noise as detailed in the following section. This
noise could be minimized through good circuit design and hence the effects are not pronounced and do
no manifest during testing.
Table 8 Comparison between Chip 1 and Chip 2 for Frequency
Rise Time Amplitude
5Mhz 110 109
10Mhz 130 143
25Mhz 100 122


Figure 84 Figure 54 Chip 2 NMOS4 1.2V Laser Power 269 10Mhz
y = 1.3641x - 601.71
y = 0.0682x + 79.836
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
y = 0.0664x + 107.93
y = 1.517x - 665.48
-150
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins

Figure 85 Figure 54 Chip 2 NMOS4 1.2V Laser Power 269 25Mhz

CONCLUSION
The frequency does not seem to have any effects on the final results. While increasing laser power and
voltage seems to produce generally stronger signals.
Preliminary tests were conducted concerning high laser power and there are signs that high laser power
may lead to permanent damage and hysteresis of the silicon die. However due to time constraints, this
must be left for future work.
y = 1.5012x - 925.71
y = 0.109x + 55.179
-100
-50
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Number of bins
III Noise Characterization
1. Overview
A spot with no signal was chosen for the probing of noise. For all the situations, the top left hand corner
of the repeater circuitry was chosen to maintain consistency.

Figure 86 Repeater circuitry at LVI and location of probe
The voltage amplitude data was collected over a span of 1 hour in 5 minute blocks to ensure consistency.
Once again the window was set to 1 ns over 1000 bins of 1ps. The data was then put through a Wigner
Ville Distribution Matlab file to generate the distribution. The results were then plotted using the PSD
Burg plot method to observe the output. A criteria for comparison was to use the peak to valley
difference to determine the effects of the variables with noise.
function [wv, ff, tt] = wvdc(x, res, win, sps);
% wvdc creates a Wigner-Ville spectrogram
%
% (wv,ff,tt)=wvd(x,res,win,sps)
%
% x= real input time series
% res= resolution, number of samples between windows
% (for full resolution: 1)
% win= window, becomes length of frequency axis
% (a good default: length(x)/2)
% sps= samples per second of signal
%
% wv= the W-V spectrum, each row represents a
% frequency, each column a time instant
% ff= frequency vector (optional)
% tt= time vector (optional)
%
% Display using:
%
% imagesc(tt,ff,log10(abs(wv)));axis xy
% or:
% surf(tt,ff,log10(abs(wv)));shading interp
%
% ...of course modifying the abs or log10 as desired.
%
% -Case Bradford, February 2005

%
% Adapted from Rene Laterveer, 1999, wvd.m package available from:
%
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/link_exchange/MATLAB/Signal_processing
/
%

z=hilbert(x);

% make even number of points, at given resolution
npts = floor(floor(length(z)/res)/2)*2;

% make sure that we entered in an integer for the window
win=floor(win);

% round window length down to nearest odd integer
oddwin = (floor((win-1)/2)*2)+1;

% half point (for indexing reasons we need it later, we're
% filling two columns per loop, so we only index through half)
halfwin = (oddwin+1)/2-1;

% create tt and ff
tt=[0:npts-1]*res/sps;
ff=[0:(win-1)]*(sps/2)/(win-1);

% pad with zeros
z = [zeros(1,oddwin-1), z, zeros(1,oddwin-1)];

% initialize (important when creating huge arrays)
wv = zeros(win,npts);

R = zeros(1, win);
idx = 1:halfwin;

for n=0:npts/2-1

t = 2*n*res+oddwin;
R(1) = z(t)*conj(z(t)) + i*z(t+res)*conj(z(t+res));
v1 = z(t+idx).*conj(z(t-idx));
v2 = z(t+res+idx).*conj(z(t+res-idx));
R(idx+1) = v1+i*v2;
R(win-idx+1) = conj(v1)+i*conj(v2);

RF = fft(R, win);

wv(:,2*n+1) = real(RF);
wv(:,2*n+2) = imag(RF);

end

return;

The result outputs were plotted in Power Spectral Density (PSD) (Burg Method) to determine the PSD of
the final WVD.
2. Frequency
The noise was characterized using the same parameters from the previous section. As the frequency
was reduced, the amount of noise increased exponentially. As seen in the time domain, the amplitude of
the low frequency is a lot higher than that of the higher frequencies. The SNR was determined by using
the standard deviations and the result is plotted below and a curve is fitted to demonstrate the results.

Figure 87 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in frequency

Figure 88 PSD at 1Mhz




Figure 92 Voltage Amplitude versus Frequency

3. Laser Power
As discussed above in the literature review, the time domain and frequency domain cannot provide a
distinction between the differing laser powers used on the die and the Wigner Ville distribution is
employed.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
1Mhz 10Mhz 50Mhz 200Mhz
V
o
t
l
a
g
e

A
m
p
l
i
t
u
d
e

Frequency

Figure 93 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in laser power

Figure 94 PSD at laser power 240



Figure 97 Peak Vs Valley values for laser power
After performing an operation to convert it to become a Wigner Ville distribution and plotting the data
using power spectral density (PSD) it can be observed that the signals have a different effect on the PSD.
From the results, the turning points appear to be at a lower normalized frequency. As the laser power
increases, the power/ frequency drops slightly. The curve also becomes more linear.
The data collected makes sense, because as the laser power increases, the signal becomes stronger and
hence the power of flicker noise decreases. The noise that is picked up would probably be thermal noise
as the power is increased and the electrons become more agitated.
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
1.15 2.5 3.15
Laser Power
4. Voltage

Figure 98 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in voltage

Figure 99 PSD at voltage 0p5



Figure 102 Peak Vs Valley values for voltage
From the plotted PSD graphs, it is observed that as the voltage increases, the turning points become
more pronounced. At the same time the power/ frequency also seems to have a positive correlation
with the increasing voltage. The turning points however seem to appear at lower normalized
frequencies as the voltage increases.
The data points to the fact that as voltage becomes higher, the noise also becomes higher. As the
voltage swing is increased it creates more space for noise margin as well. It is interesting to observe that
the noise is moving towards lower frequencies as the voltage is incremented.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
0.5 1 1.2
Voltage
5. Focus

Figure 103 Time domain and frequency domain of signals varying in focus

Figure 104 PSD In Focus

Figure 105 PSD Out of Focus

Figure 106 Peak Vs Valley values for focus
From the figure104 and figure 105 above, the turning points of the PSD are the same. However, the
Power/ Frequency is substantially lower for the die which is out of focus. The difference is roughly
5dB/rad. When the die is out of focus, the values reflected would be substantially lower because the
optical receiver is not absorbing at the optimal efficiency.
Figure 106 demonstrates the increase in peak to valley value. The loss in focus possibly created a greater
increment to noise.
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
In Focus Out of Focus
6. Limitations and Problems encountered
The CMP process is unable to produce a tolerance better than 20 microns and causes the samples to
vary in terms of thickness. This led to certain samples having stronger or weaker signals, depending on
the sample thickness.
At the same time, there was a substantial amount of jitter and noise contributed by the wires,
connectors and test equipment. There was no way to minimize the amount of jitter and noise being
introduced into the test set up. The LVP would go through averaging and try to yield the best possible
signal, however jitter and noise was still not removed completely.
With concerns to noise analysis. The machine averaged out the data. This led to problems when doing
time frequency analysis as the injected events were masked by the averaging. Therefore the final results
presented in this dissertation only showcased individual variables instead of changing variables.
7. Conclusion
It is interesting to note the peaks and valleys that are observed throughout the plotting of the PSD
graphs. From theory, noise is supposed to follow an exponential decay in PSD. However in the observed
cases here, there are peaks and valleys at specific frequencies. The peaks could be attributed to the
resonant frequencies when the impedance is closely matched. The better power matching causes the
spike in the power spectrum. The valleys could be frequencies where the impedance matching is the
worse case scenario and causes the drop in value.
The only instance where the valley is lower than the peak and the curve follows the traditional 1/f noise
curve is when laser power is at 3.15 mW. The result shows that the higher laser power would yield more
realistic results, especially when studying noise. The higher laser power also contributes to a much
better signal with the noise decreasing.
For voltage, based on the incrementing peak to valley ratio, we can conclude that the noise is
exponentially increasing with increasing voltage swing.

IV Conclusion and future work
Conclusion
It is certain that induction of laser power on the silicon die will create a change to the die structure.
From the results it is concluded that there is a deterioration of the rise time with increasing laser power.
However there is also a better signal with increasing laser power. This presents a contradiction and it is
up to the discretion of the tester to determine the best trade off and achieve the best signal needed to
find a fault using the LVP.
With results to noise, it is interesting to note the effects the variables could have on the test results and
could prove to be an invaluable tool for quick and efficient diagnostics to ensure the correct set of
values are inputted. This data could be used by industry to create efficient operating procedures for
efficient manufacturing and testing.
Future works
Future work could be done on other circuitry and other processes to try to replicate and reproduce the
results or determine if the characterizations only work with the current circuitry and current process.
Preliminary tests were also carried out concerning the damage by laser power on the die and there
seems to be evidence that a higher laser power does cause some hysteresis on the silicon. This would be
a good direction to move towards in order to maximize the LVP tool.
Due to time constraints, some of the criteria for comparison were not fully explored such as SNR and
gradient of rise/ fall time. An algorithm to standardize the processing of the data is needed to remove
variation and produce results that can be replicated.
At the same time, more work needs to be done to find a faster frequency filtering algorithm that can
detect multiple components and make it cost efficient and more viable for industry to adopt time
frequency analysis into main stream testing apparatus.

V References
[1] V. N. Khmelev, A. V. Shalunov, and E. S. Smerdina, "Increasing Efficiency of a Chemical-
Mechanical Polishing of the Silicon Wafer," in Electron Devices and Materials, 2006. Proceedings.
7th Annual 2006 International Workshop and Tutorials on, 2006, pp. 263-269.
[2] G. Zhixue, L. Qingzhong, Z. Hui, and Z. Jing, "Research on material removal rate of each element
of chemical mechanical polishing," in Mechanic Automation and Control Engineering (MACE),
2011 Second International Conference on, 2011, pp. 608-611.
[3] K. A. Reinhardt and R. F. Reidy, Handbook of cleaning for semiconductor manufacturing :
fundamentals and applications. Salem, Mass. Scrivener ; Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2011.
[4] I. D. Marinescu, E. Uhlmann, and T. K. Doi, Handbook of lapping and polishing. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, 2007.
[5] "http://www.alliedhightech.com/grinding/polishsystem/."
[6] "http://www.horiba.com/us/en/scientific/products/particle-
characterization/applications/cmp/."
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Characterization of Laser Voltage Probing

ratio when biased in the

is the optimum number of repeaters

is the fixed delay

is peak current that flows from Vdd to ground

is the time period where both transitions are on

is proportional to line capacitance.

> < = dtd t TF t t

= ' ' ) ' , ' ( ) ' , ' ( ) , ( d dt t WD t t t SWD

, the n-moving average of the sequence is {

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