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:
Nov. 19, 1996
Filed:
Oct. 03, 1994
Heinz Zeininger, Erlangen, DE;
Werner M Klingenstein, Kirchheim, DE;
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, Munich, DE;
Abstract
In a method of determining the possible formation of crystalline defects in a body of a semiconductor material during the process of fabricating integrated circuits in the body, at least one body is subjected to a full fabrication process to form completed integrated circuits in the body which can be electrically tested to determine whether the operation of the integrated circuit is adversely affected by the formation of crystalline defects. Test structures, each of which is only a portion of the complete integrated circuit, are formed during the formation of the complete circuit but are fabricated using only a group of a limited number of the steps of the fabrication process used to fabricate the complete integrated circuit with various ones of the test structures being subjected to different ones of the steps of the group of steps. The test structures may be formed on the same body as the complete circuit or on additional bodies. The test structures are then analyzed to determine which of the steps may have formed crystalline defects in the body.