The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 04, 2018
Filed:
Sep. 17, 2015
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do, KR;
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Gyeonggi-do, KR;
Abstract
An apparatus and a method which use a programmable reliability aging timer are provided. The apparatus includes a performance circuit configured to perform a function of an integrated circuit (IC), a memory unit configured to store a lifetime of the IC, a controller configured to set an aging target condition according to the lifetime stored in the memory unit, and a reliability aging timer (RAT) configured to apply stress to a test pattern according to the aging target condition and sense a result of the stress to determine the degradation of the IC. The RAT refreshes an operation of the performance circuit if it is determined that the IC degraded before the lifetime of the IC.