Radiosensory diagnostics of signal integrity in-circuit and peripheral architecture of microprocessor devices

Abstract

For the first time, a passive method for radiosensor diagnostics of the integrity of signals from microprocessor devices was developed and presented. The method is based on the registration of the electrical component of the near field of electromagnetic radiation induced as a result of the clock formation (variability) of the impulse response of a digital circuit caused by the dynamic restructuring of the active configuration of its in-circuit and peripheral architecture. It is shown that real radiation is a superposition of fields of emitters of the active architecture of a microprocessor, each of which has its own impulse and amplitude-frequency characteristics with its own peaks and dips, resonances and excitations. An expression of the free component is presented for the oscillatory nature of the process of energy redistribution between reactive storage devices, which depends on the capacitances of the gate dielectrics of MIS transistors, barrier and diffusion capacities of p-n junctions, inductances and ohmic resistances of circuit elements and the scheme of their architectural connection. An experiment was prepared and carried out on the method of passive radio-wave technical diagnostics of microprocessor devices on a specially developed test sample with a known command execution algorithm. The results of registration of a series of signal radio profiles when starting a sample of a digital device are presented, and a correlation assessment of the reproducibility of the experiment is carried out. It is proved that time interval transitions of free oscillations are formed on the reference signal radio profile. These transitions correspond to the microcontroller’s reference to the periphery according to the algorithm of the command functioning of the sample. The possibility of obtaining detailed information about the nature of the peripheral load and its performance by examining the corresponding sections of the reference signal radio profile is shown. It was found that the spectral-time frames of the software and hardware functioning of the digital device under study are clearly identified on the recorded radio images.