Accurate characterization of some radiative EMC phenomena at chip level, using dedicated EMC-testchips

This paper focuses on the radiated EMC-behaviour of ICs and ASICs. An EMC testchip has been developed, encompassing some passive IC interconnection structures. Together with a dedicated EMC-testboard for mounting the IC, as well as a suited EMC measurement set-up, a configuration is obtained that enables one to perform an in-depth evaluation of some important EMC radiating mechanisms at chip level. The EMC-measurements have focused on the comparison between the radiation from IC-interconnects, and the radiation from well-known PCB-interconnects (such as microstrips). From this comparison, the authors observe that an on-chip interconnect may generate significantly more radiation (up to 20 dB for frequencies above 700 MHz) than a microstrip track of comparable length. Especially, packaging effects play a major role in this.