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:
Apr. 27, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1997
Roger Aime Dufresne, Fairfax, VT (US);
Charles William Griffin, Underhill, VT (US);
Chorng-Lii Hwang, Wappingers Falls, NY (US);
William Alan Klaasen, Underhill, VT (US);
Alvin Wayne Strong, Essex Junction, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The present invention is directed to an apparatus and method for reliability testing of an integrated circuit. The present invention provides a test structure and method for testing gate and node dielectrics of an integrated circuit wherein a self-heating gate structure is integrated with the product structure itself. Selected conductive lines within the product structure are used as heater elements to provide temperature stressing of the integrated circuit. The localized self-heating gate structure is an integral part of the product chip. Thus, etch and deposition characteristics of the test structure are kept identical to the etch and deposition characteristics of the product itself. As low-voltage technologies make it harder to obtain significant acceleration due to voltage stressing, temperature stressing may be used instead to increase acceleration.