HRL Develops Functional Testing Tool to Evaluate Integrated Circuits at the Nano Scale

MALIBU, Calif., November 23, 2011—Developing an effective way to verify integrated circuits at the nanometer scale has become a major challenge with the decreasing size  and increasing complexity of microcircuitry. Since November 2010, researchers at HRL Laboratories, LLC, have been developing such a capability for the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) as part of the Circuit Analysis Tools, or CAT Program.

The goal of CAT is to create a tool that can identify die-level visual and nonvisual defects in transistors. Such a tool must be able to discern individual transistors while simultaneously analyzing areas as large as 10 microns to rapidly detect any defects.

“HRL’s solution is a tool that will provide logic analysis for circuits in development through a unique and highly sensitive sensor architecture,” Dr. Hooman Kazemi, principal investigator for CAT, said. “The tool is also unique in that it is scalable in resolution and performance and can adapt to current and future nodes of semiconductor technology.”

In the first year of the 48-month effort, HRL designed and tested sensor components ready to be integrated into a fully operational sensor. “In year two of the program, we will develop the sensor and demonstrate the first high-resolution scanning of a CMOS chip at the nanometer scale,” Kazemi said.

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HRL Laboratories, LLC, Malibu, California (www.hrl.com) is a corporate research-and-development laboratory owned by The Boeing Company and General Motors specializing in research into sensors and materials, information and systems sciences, applied electromagnetics, and microelectronics. HRL provides custom research and development and performs additional R&D contract services for its LLC member companies, the U.S. government, and other commercial companies.

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