Measuring electronic components - Part 3: measuring active components

Whether the components are discrete (diodes, transistors) or integrated (logic, analog), their control generally involves three stages:

• verification of static electrical parameters (voltages, currents) defining interchangeability characteristics;

  functional testing to verify the component's ability to perform its function;

  verification of dynamic parameters guaranteeing circuit operation at certain frequencies or in certain frequency bands.

These steps will be followed in full or in part, depending on the purpose of the inspection, i.e. whether you are interested in manufacturing inspection (wafer testing, manufacturing output inspection or user input inspection), quality control or evaluation, or fault diagnosis (failure analysis).

Thus, for output control, test time will be one of the most important factors, while for quality control or evaluation, measurement accuracy will be the most important factor.

In the rest of this dossier, we'll look at the measurements required for each family of semiconductors, and the resources needed to carry them out.

This text is the new edition of the article Mesure des composants électroniques, written in 1993 by Jean-Claude Gourdon and Paul Prodhomme, from which a few extracts are taken. It follows on from the articles [R 1 078v2] and [R 1 079] , which deal with general measurement methods for electronic and passive components.