Model-Based Estimation for Improving the Resolution of the Pulsed Electroacoustic Method

With the continuous miniaturization of electronic circuits, insulating layers are becoming thinner and, as a result, more prone to dielectric breakdown. The pulsed electroacoustic method enables gaining insight about breakdowns by examining the space charge distribution of the material under test. This paper proposes the matrix pencil method, a high-resolution model-based estimation method, to improve resolution of the pulsed electroacoustic method and extend its application to thin dielectrics. This method relies on the structure of the data matrix resulting from the underlying signal model representing the output of piezoelectric transducer to restore the resolution of charge distributions. Results obtained on simulated data show that the proposed method succeeds in improving the resolution to below the existing 10 µm limit.