Post-silicon power mapping techniques for integrated circuits

We propose a new methodology for post-silicon power validation using the captured thermal infrared emissions from the back-side of operational integrated circuits. We first identify the challenges associated with thermal to power inversion, and then we address these challenges by devising a quadratic optimization formulation that incorporates Tikhonov filtering techniques to find the most accurate power maps. To validate our methodology, a programmable circuit of micro-heaters is implemented to create a number of reference power maps. The thermal emissions from the circuit are captured using an infrared camera and then inverted to yield highly accurate post-silicon power maps.

► We discuss of the challenges associated with post-silicon power mapping from thermal emissions. ► We propose techniques from regularization theory to reduce noise and constrain the solution space. ► We implement a test chip to evaluate and validate post-silicon mapping algorithms. ► We description of a working system to translate thermal emissions into spatial power maps.