A high speed signal averager for electron beam test systems

A new signal processing method is described for electron beam design validation of integrated circuits. The method uses a multi-point digital averager including a fast hardware integrator. The method is particularly suited to extraction of logic values in synchronism with an external clock, although it can easily be used for analogue waveform acquisition. A method for using the averager with a voltage measuring spectrometer is suggested which uses a digital convergence algorithm to calculate feedback voltages for the retarding grid. The system is compared with other signal processing systems for electron beam test systems.