About cookies on this site Our websites require some cookies to function properly (required). In addition, other cookies may be used with your consent to analyze site usage, improve the user experience and for advertising. For more information, please review your options. By visiting our website, you agree to our processing of information as described in IBM’sprivacy statement. To provide a smooth navigation, your cookie preferences will be shared across the IBM web domains listed here.
Conference paper
Optical imaging of picosecond switching in CMOS circuits
Abstract
Hot electron light emission is used to measure the propagation of signals through the individual gates in fully functional CMOS circuits. The experiment used an imaging microchannel plate photomultiplier as a detector. Time resolution is obtained by photon timing over a repetitive electrical waveform. CMOS ring oscillators and counters are used as model circuits, fabricated with an effective gate length of 0.6 μm. A series of time-resolved images have been overlaid and assembled into a video. By measuring the voltage dependence of the emission intensity, and from comparisons between circuits with different effective gate lengths, it is shown that the emission process depends on the electric field inside the device.