A compact low-cost test equipment for thermal and electrical characterization of integrated circuits

In this work, a versatile, low-cost, and portable measurement system for thermal and electrical characterization of integrated circuits is presented. The system is based on a reconfigurable testing board controlled through a micro-controller which handles the analog and digital signals required for measurements and manages the communication between the testing board and a personal computer (used to control the system, store and process measured data) through the USB interface. The main advantages of the proposed system are the versatility in the generation of the required digital signals (provided by an FPGA which can be customized for any device under test (DUT)) together with the possibility to perform temperature characterization by using a temperature regulator based on a Peltier cell which is integrated and controlled by the measurement system. The DUT is supplied with the required bias and control analog signals generated by the system and can be measured by means of analog and digital acquisition channels. A large number of programmable analog voltages and currents are available, which allows test routines to be easily implemented and applied to the DUT. Finally, the smart graphic interface and the use of programming languages such as C++ or Visual Basic simplify the test flow and the subsequent data processing, thus allowing fast and efficient device characterization. Some examples of electrical and thermal characterization are provided to evaluate the performance and the effectiveness of the proposed environment.