A Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detector (SnSPD) system for ultra low voltage Time-Resolved Emission (TRE) measurements of VLSI circuits

In this paper, we present a Superconducting Nanowire Single Photon Detector (SnSPD) system and its application to ultra low voltage Time-Resolved Emission (TRE) measurements (also known as Picosecond Imaging Circuit Analysis, PICA) of scaled VLSI circuits. The 9 μm-diameter detector is housed in a closed loop cryostat and fiber coupled to an existing Emiscope III tool for collecting spontaneous emission light from the backside of integrated circuits (ICs) down to a world record 0.5 V supply voltage in a few minutes. Copyright © 2013 ASM International® All rights reserved.