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Heating is a major cause of failure in integrated circuits. The authors have designed thermoreflectance‐based systems operating at various wavelengths in order to obtain temperature images. This paper aims to explore the possibilities of each wavelength range and detail the charge coupled device (CCD)‐based thermal imaging tools dedicated to the high‐resolution inspection of integrated circuits.

Thermoreflectance is a non‐contact optical method using the local reflectivity variations induced by heating to infer temperature mappings, and can be conducted at virtually any wavelength, giving access to different types of information. In the visible, the technique is now well established. It can probe temperatures through several micrometers of transparent encapsulation layers, with sub‐μm spatial resolution and 100 mK thermal resolution.

In the ultraviolet range, dielectric encapsulation layers are opaque and thermoreflectance gives access to the surface temperature. In the near infrared, thermoreflectance is an interesting solution to examine chips turned upside down, since these wavelengths can penetrate through silicon substrates and give access to the temperature of the active layers themselves.

The authors show that the illumination wavelength of thermoreflectance should be chosen with care depending on the region of the integrated circuit (surface, above, or below the substrate) to be investigated.

This set of versatile and sensitive tools makes thermoreflectance an interesting tool for the semiconductor industry, either during prototyping or as a characterization tool after fabrication.

The CCD‐based thermoreflectance approach adopted here allows fast, non‐contact, high‐resolution thermal imaging of integrated circuits.

This paper seeks to describe and discuss the historical development of IR sensors used in thermal imaging and to identify and consider some recent research trends.

This paper first considers cooled semiconductor photon detectors and their limitations and then traces the historical development of un‐cooled IR sensing technologies and their commercialisation. It then discusses certain present‐day developments and research trends.

This paper shows that military‐funded research by the USA in the 1980s led to families of un‐cooled IR sensors, pyroelectric detectors and microbolometers, that have since been widely commercialised. Research continues in the search for a technology that can yield un‐cooled sensors offering the sensitivity of cooled devices, such as Golay cells, microcantilever arrays and biomimetics.

This paper traces the technological evolution of un‐cooled thermal imaging sensors and identifies and considers recent research.

This paper aims to present a new approach to implement a pedestrian tracking algorithm for a passive automotive night vision application.

First, the basic information of passive and active night vision systems is presented, with implementation methods adopted in previous work. The proposed thermal‐image processing is a combination of seed detection, boundary detection and seed growth computations, based on a temperature thresholding scheme.

The processing routine performance is assessed when implemented to a continuous sequence of thermal acquisitions, from a commercial automotive night vision module. Experimental results show good tracking performance for both pedestrians and passing vehicles.

A strategy of multi‐seed growth, directional seed growth and image fusion is proposed to improve the current tracking algorithm.

New thermal image processing routines are applied to commercial, automotive night vision modules, to provide robust pedestrian tracking at real‐time processing speed.

This paper aims to describe the background to the development of diamond‐based sensors and to illustrate recent progress in this field.

This paper first considers the properties of diamond and some early attempts to fabricate sensors for monitoring UV and radiation from this material. It subsequently discusses recent progress through reference to companies which are now commercialising the technology.

This paper illustrates that early attempts to fabricate diamond‐based sensors were largely unsuccessful but the recent development of improved fabrication processes has yielded materials which are now allowing a range of sensing applications to be realised.

The paper describes the early attempts to commercialise diamond‐based sensors and detectors and shows that improved materials are now making this possible.

In some developing countries, vehicles are often over‐loaded, which causes road accidents and damage to road surfaces. Currently, large measuring facilities are used to measure the vehicle‐loading on highways. A major limitation is that they can measure vehicle‐loading at fixed locations only. This paper seeks to present an on‐vehicle loading measurement system with capacitance and acceleration transducers.

A description and analysis of the system are presented.

The capacitance transducers sense the variation in distance between electrodes, using the on‐vehicle leaf springs as weighing elastomers. The acceleration transducers deal with the influence of acceleration to vehicle‐loading measurement. The major advantage of this system over the existing systems is that both static and dynamic loading can be measured.

This system is simple and easy to install.

The paper shows that with this system both a driver and an inspector can check vehicle‐loading at any time and any location through radio communication, thus identifying over‐loaded vehicles on highways.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a system that provides the driver or the driving assistance system with the lateral position information of the vehicle on the lane in order to detect as early as possible run‐off‐road and then prevent a foreseeable crash.

A magnetized tape deposited on the road in the middle of the lane generates a magnetic field which is detected by on‐board sensors. Depending on the distance between the tape and the sensors, accurate positioning information can be estimated.

The use of at least five sensors makes it possible to obtain a 2 mm‐lateral‐positioning accuracy.

Magnetized tapes are relatively cheap to install and provide an accurate vehicle lateral positioning with low ‐cost magneto‐resistance on‐board sensors. In addition , a magnetization variation along the tape would allow information to be coded which could be then transmitted to the driver.

This paper sets out to describe hardware and software developments in robotic cameras for wildlife observation.

The role of automatic equipment in wildlife observation is introduced, and examples of suitable cameras are given. There follows a description of an intensive search for a bird previously thought extinct, and an intelligent robotic video system specially developed to assist. Finally, a general robotic observatory is described which combines teleoperation and autonomy.

Biology field work is very labour‐intensive, but is becoming increasingly high‐tech. Sensors and intelligent specialist software are helping biologists by improving the selectivity of images captured and stored, and the responsiveness of remote systems to their live imaging needs. Automated and teleoperated equipment greatly increases observation potential whilst avoiding the disturbance of human presence.

The paper highlights the valuable contribution of teleoperation and automation in an unusual area. It is of interest to engineers and naturalists.

The paper aims to explain the operating principles of fluxgate magnetometers.

The approach is to describe the uses of ring fluxgate magnetometers and their operating principles.

The operating principles of fluxgate magnetometers are poorly understood and their applications potential seriously undervalued. An increasing number of everyday applications relying on sensing and fluxgates, in conjunction with modern analogue and micro‐controller electronics, represent unique value in implementing a variety of low‐cost, precise and absolute sensing elements. As magnetometers they are small, robust, reliable, low‐cost and can resolve flux densities to nano Teslas. This can be exploited to make a variety of sensors which are precise, inherently non‐contact and, for rotary sensing, have full 360° operation.

The paper illustrates how fluxgate magnetometers can form the basis for a variety of robust, reliable, non‐contact industrial sensors.

The goal of this review paper is to provide information on several commonly used thermography techniques in semiconductor and micro‐device industry and research today.

The temperature imaging or mapping techniques include thin coating methods such as liquid crystal thermography and fluorescence microthermography, contact mechanical methods such as scanning thermal microscopy, and optical techniques such as infrared microscopy and thermoreflectance. Their principles, characteristics and applications are discussed.

Thermal issues play an important part in optimizing the performance and reliability of high‐frequency and high‐packing density electronic circuits. To improve the performance and reliability of microelectronic devices and also to validate thermal models, accurate knowledge of local temperatures and thermal properties is required.

The paper provides readers, especially technical engineers in industry, a general knowledge of several commonly used thermography techniques in the semiconductor and micro‐device industries.