Novel method for real-time monitoring of non-linear transition shift

This paper presents a technique for real-time measurement of non-linear transition shift (NLTS) caused by the adjacent transition. The method is based on the harmonic elimination principle. By measuring the readout amplitude of three selected harmonics from a specific test pattern, the NLTS can be obtained from the amplitudes of the three selected harmonics. The proposed method has the advantage for real-time measurement of the NLTS. This is not true for the existing NLTS measurement techniques. Comparison of the NLTS value measured by the proposed method and the existing method shows satisfactory agreement between them. Furthermore, the proposed method has the advantage of insensitivity to the fluctuation of flying height during the reading and testing process.