On-Wafer Measurement of Gigahertz Integrated Circuits

Publisher Summary On-wafer probes using hybrid MIC technology structures have demonstrated a new, significantly improved level of accuracy for on-wafer integrated circuit (IC) component measurements above 1 GHz. These probes perform as 50-ohm adapters between the IC component bond pads and standard coaxial connectors. As their reproducibility is comparable with other kinds of high-quality adapters commonly used in microwave-device measurements, these probes can be used with well-known coaxial component measurement error correction techniques. The use of these techniques with standard microwave network analysis equipment results in on-wafer lumped component reflection coefficient measurement accuracy to 0.03 with resolution to 0.01 at frequencies up to 18 GHz. Parasitics are small to such an extent that the maximum frequency of useful operation is still limited by currently available network analyzers and their coaxial connectors, not the probes themselves. Thus, accurate on-wafer measurements to 25 or 30 GHz are seen as possible as the state of the art in microwave analysis instruments continues to mature.