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. 09, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 30, 1998
Sunil Narayan Shabde, Cupertino, CA (US);
Donald L Wollesen, Saratoga, CA (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and methods for determining the robustness of a device to soft errors generated by alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strikes by measuring the charge Q.sub.c that flow through a node of an equivalent diode structure when the diode structure is impinged by a light pulse with energy equivalent to that of the alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strikes. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of producing a light pulse having a light pulse energy, the light pulse energy is at a first light pulse energy; applying the light pulse to the device at a predetermined location, the predetermined location having an area and a geometry; varying the light pulse energy to a second light pulse energy which generates a soft error; detecting soft errors in the device; providing a diode having the same area and geometry as the predetermined location; applying the light pulse with the second light pulse energy to the diode; and determining the amount of charges that flow through the diode. The present invention additionally provides inexpensive methods and apparatus that would accurately simulate an alpha-particle and/or cosmic ray strike in a predetermined area of a memory cell and for comparing different technologies and SRAM/DRAM designs by comparing this pulse energy needed to produce the soft error.