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:
Feb. 11, 2003
Filed:
May. 23, 2001
Jeffrey D. Birdsley, Austin, TX (US);
Michael R. Bruce, Austin, TX (US);
Brennan V. Davis, Austin, TX (US);
Rosalinda M. Ring, Austin, TX (US);
Daniel L. Stone, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Rama R. Goruganthu, Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a semiconductor die having a buried insulator layer between a circuit side and a back side is selectively thinned. During thinning, a selected portion of the bulk silicon layer on the back side is removed and a void created. A circuit is formed in the void and is coupled to the existing circuitry on the circuit side of the die. The new circuit is used to analyze the die during operation, testing, or other conditions. The newly formed circuit enhances the ability to analyze the semiconductor die by adding flexibility to the traditional analysis methods used for integrated circuit dice. The newly formed circuit enables many new ways of interactively using the existing circuitry some of which include replacement of defective circuitry, modification of existing circuit operations, and stimulation of existing circuitry for testing.