Measurement Setup for Characterizing Immunity of Integrated Circuits to Pulsed Electric Fields using the IC Stripline

A measurement setup is presented for characterizing the immunity of an ambient light sensor (ALS) integrated circuit (IC) to pulsed electric fields for consumer electronics products. The charge transferred to the photodiode during the rising and falling edges of the pulses is integrated and processed by the sensor, and it generates a shift in the ALS reading mean value. The pulsed electric fields up to 50kV/m are applied to the IC using an open-terminated IC stripline with a septum height of 1.5 mm above the IC that is driven by voltage pulses with positive and negative amplitudes up to 80 V. The circuit for generating the voltage pulses synchronized with the on-chip photodiode integration phase is presented, and the achieved rising and falling edge characteristics are measured. The ALS reading shift is measured as a function of the voltage pulse amplitude, DUT orientation, level of illumination, and integrator gain. The relationship between the ALS reading shift and the electric field amplitude is established as a figure-of-merit for the immunity of the IC to pulsed electric fields.