Rapid diagnostics of an ASIC IP block using dynamic laser scanning

Recently a powerful class of failure analysis techniques based on dynamic laser stimulation (DLS) of operating ICs has been developed. DLS techniques include soft-defect localization (SDL), in which a 1.3/spl mu/m laser locally heats the device, and laser-assisted device alteration (LADA), in which a 1.06 /spl mu/m laser injects photocurrent. In this paper we report the use of DLS to locate a marginal circuit in an IP memory block on an advanced graphics ASIC with 0.11 /spl mu/m technology.