Method and on chip circuitry for testing integrated circuits, for instance,
flip chip integrated circuits. Provided on the integrated circuit in
addition to the conventional circuitry is additional circuitry including a
photosensitive element such as a photodiode, the output terminal of which
is connected via a Schmidt trigger to the clock terminal of an on-chip
flip-flop. The node of the integrated circuit to be tested, for instance,
the output terminal of a logic gate, is connected to the D input terminal
of the same flip-flop. Hence, light incident on the photosensitive element
clocks the flip-flop, allowing sampling of the state of the output signal
from the logic gate. Advantageously, the photodiode need not be a
specially made structure but in one version is the conventional PN
junction provided by, e.g., the drain of a standard CMOS transistor.