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:
Mar. 08, 1994
Filed:
Aug. 27, 1992
John M Birkner, Portola Valley, CA (US);
David T Martin, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Richard J Wong, Milpitas, CA (US);
QuickLogic Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A method for determining an electrical characteristic (such as a resistance) of an antifuse of a programmable device. The method comprises the steps of: 1) before the antifuse is programmed, determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a first conductive path which includes a series element disposed electrically in series with a parallel element, the parallel element being controlled to be substantially conductive, the parallel element being disposed electrically in parallel with the unprogrammed antifuse; 2) after programming of the antifuse, determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a second conductive path including the series element disposed electrically in series with the programmed antifuse when the parallel element is controlled to be substantially nonconductive; 3) determining an electrical characteristic (such as a voltage, current and/or resistance) of a third, conductive path through the series element, and through the programmed antifuse and the parallel element, the parallel element being controlled to be substantially conductive; and 4) determining the electrical characteristic (such as a resistance) of the antifuse based on the above three determinations in 1), 2) and 3). The method is usable to determine whether or not programmed antifuses of a programmable device have low enough resistances to meet desired reliability criteria.