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:
Jun. 04, 2002
Filed:
Mar. 22, 1999
Andres Bryant, Essex Junction, VT (US);
William Clark, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Edward J. Nowak, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Minh Tong, Essex Junction, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corp., Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A circuit and a method for automatically detecting an operating condition of an integrated circuit chip and for automatically outputting a control signal in response to automatically detecting one of at least two said operating conditions. With the preferred embodiment, FET off currents are reduced during burn-in of a CMOS integrated chip. This is done by a compact, local sensing circuit. The sensing circuit is off during the normal chip operation, and the sensing circuit is only used where needed to provide a local signal to cut down excessive FET off currents. The sensing circuit preferred embodiment is designed with an NFET bandgap device that employs a novel layout approach.