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. 02, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 01, 1998
Peter M. O'Neill, Ft. Collins, CO (US);
Victor Johansen, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Peter Maxwell, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention, in general, provides for a testing system and method for detecting defects within a circuit. A current signature of the quiescent current of the circuit is determined, and certain constant values are calculated based on the current signature using a linear iterative regression. A defect free state for the circuit associated with a minimum quiescent current (I ) is then determined. The I of the circuit for this state is measured, and a signal indicating the I at this state is used along with the aforementioned constant values to create upper and lower threshold values. Thereafter, signals indicating the value of I for a plurality of other states are compared to the upper and lower threshold values. The circuit is determined to be defective if the values of any of the signals is greater than the upper threshold value or is less than the lower threshold value.