Thermal coupling in integrated circuits: Application to thermal testing

The power dissipated by the devices of a circuit can be construed as a sign ature of the circuit's performance and state, Without disturbing the circui t operation, this power consumption can be monitored by temperature measure ments of the silicon die surface via built-in differential temperature sens ors, In this paper, dynamic and spatial thermal behavioral characterization of VLSI MOS devices is presented using laser thermoreflectance measurement s and on-chip differential temperature sensing circuits, A discussion of th e application of built-in differential temperature measurements as an IC te st strategy is also presented.