Noninterfering optical method of HBT circuit evaluation

Author

Wang, K.C. ; Asbeck, P.M. ; Chang, M.F. ; Sullivan, G.J. ; Miller, Douglas L. ; Basit, H.F.

Author_Institution

Rockwell Int. Sci. Center, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

Volume

25

Issue

17

fYear

1989

Firstpage

1111

Lastpage

1112

Abstract

The authors report a novel noninterfering and simple approach for evaluation of circuits implemented with AlGaAs/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs). This method makes use of radiative recombination in the base region of current-carrying HBTs. The infrared radiation emitted is ´visible´ to the closed-circuit TV (CCTV) cameras. Therefore, one can view the operation of the HBT circuit under test at normal biases with a TV monitor. This method can be used to determine logic states of gates, as well as collector current of individual HBTs within integrated circuits.

Keywords

bipolar integrated circuits; heterojunction bipolar transistors; infrared imaging; integrated circuit testing; integrated logic circuits; logic testing; television applications; AlGaAs-GaAs; CCTV camera; HBT circuit evaluation; IR radiation emission; TV monitor; base region; closed-circuit TV; collector current; heterojunction bipolar transistors; infrared radiation; integrated circuits; logic gate states determination; monolithic IC; radiative recombination;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Letters

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0013-5194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/el:19890745

Filename

41895