Date of Award

2009-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Eric MacDonald

Abstract

The objective of this research is to investigate a new approach for the early detection of latent defects in electronic devices in the field. Reliability is assessed through the non-traditional approach of recording and evaluating the power profile of electronic devices within a deterministic state of operation. Traditionally, measuring the quiescent current (Iddq) of a device has been employed in manufacturing tests to detect defective parts prior to deployment to the field. However, the monitoring of the deterministic power signature (i.e. boot up or during a self-test routine) has never been exploited to monitor the health of a device in the field through out the full product life cycle. Critical to the success of this approach is the development of a viable, low-cost monitoring system that can capture a power signature in a digital format and provide a statistical comparison to previous signatures in order to detect deviations in quality from the device in question. Consideration for the engineering trade-offs between

1.improved sensitivity to reliability problems, and

2.reduced size and cost

are both taken into account in this Thesis, along with a description of a developed platform that will be employed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach through the capture of Digital Power Signatures (DPSs).

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

101 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Jonathan Amilcar Cervantes

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