Diagnosis and characterization of timing-related defects by time-dependent light emission

Technological advances such as flip-chip packaging, multiple hierarchical wiring planes, and ultra-high frequencies reduce the effectiveness of conventional diagnostic techniques. It has recently been demonstrated that light pulses emitted during circuit switching can be used to characterize the behaviour of integrated circuits. In this paper, a new method of circuit characterization using this technique is described. An example of the diagnosis of a timing failure caused by a resistive path to a single transistor is described.