Title :
The 3v Fallacy: Measuring a Small Number of Samples
Author :
Schmid, Heinz ; Huber, Alex
Author_Institution :
Institute of Microelectronics, University of Applied Sciences Norhtwestern Switzerland, Windisch, 5210, Switzerland
Abstract :
Many solid-state circuits papers today report the mean n and the standard deviation v of measurement results obtained from a small number of test chips and then compare them with numbers other authors obtained. Almost none of them discuss confidence intervals, ranges of values for that standard deviation within which the true value lies with a certain probability. Many implicitly assume that the n! 3v range would contain all but 0.27% of chip samples to be expected in volume production. This is incorrect even if it is certain that the measured quantity is exactly normal distributed.
Keywords :
Error probability; Gaussian distribution; Semiconductor device measurement; Solid state circuits; Temperature sensors; Tutorials;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Magazine, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MMM.2014.2355954
