Wideband Conducted Electromagnetic Emission Measurements Using IPD Chip Probes

A novel on-chip measurement technique for characterizing conducted electromagnetic emission of integrated circuits in the gigahertz frequency range is proposed. The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) direct coupling method is reviewed, and the considerations on improving the applicable bandwidth of the testing probes are discussed. Design of the most critical resistive components for the probes is elaborated to achieve the required accuracy and bandwidth. With the compact chip probes realized by the integrated passive device (IPD) technology, the measurement bandwidth can be significantly extended compared with the conventionally used surface mounted device resistors. The probes are verified to comply with the IEC 61967-4 standard, and an excellent bandwidth up to 15 GHz can be achieved. By connecting the flipped die under test with the probes embedded in IPD substrate (core sizes of the 1-Q current probe and 150-Q voltage probe are 0.55 mm × 0.77 mm and 0.83 mm × 1.49 mm, respectively), the conducted emission measurement of a 58-MHz oscillator integrated circuit is demonstrated up to 3 GHz.