Patent ID: 7777507

Claim:
A method of testing an integrated circuit device, comprising: directing a beam of laser energy to stimulate at least a portion of said device to emit electromagnetic waves in response to said laser energy stimulation wherein said laser beam directing includes scanning a laser beam over an array of locations of a region of said device; detecting said electromagnetic waves emitted from said device in response to said stimulation using a sensor array wherein said detecting includes collecting a first collection of outputs of said sensor array for each location of said array of locations while said laser beam is scanned over said region, and collecting a second collection of outputs of said sensor array for each location of said array of locations without scanning said laser beam over said region; and determining as a function of said detecting of electromagnetic waves emitted from said device in response to said stimulation whether said device has a defect wherein said determining includes comparing a sensor array output for a particular device location of said first collection to a sensor array output of said second collection for said particular device location to determine if said device has a defect at the particular device location and wherein said determining includes comparing a sensor array output for a particular device location to a predetermined value to determine if said device has a defect at the particular device location.