Design, Characterization, and Application of a Field-Programmable Thermal Emulation Platform

This paper presents an on-chip digitally programmable thermal coupling emulation framework, referred to as the field-programmable thermal emulator (FPTE), for online characterization of power pattern, time-varying thermal field, and associated changes in the electrical characteristics of the transistors. A test chip was designed in 130-nm CMOS to validate the test structure. The measurement results demonstrated the ability of FPTE to emulate various power patterns and capture the effects on temperature and circuit performance. The test chip is used to explore and identify thermal coupling. The potential application of FPTE moves beyond thermal package tests and is capable of being used as chip-level thermal condition prediction and management infrastructure.