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. 25, 2003
Filed:
May. 24, 1999
Kin P. Cheung, Hoboken, NJ (US);
Agere Systems Inc., Berkeley Heights, NJ (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to the measurement and monitoring of plasma-damage, and to the evaluation of the lifetime of integrated circuits under nominal operating conditions. The method calculates the intrinsic, or damage-free, lifetime of a particular transistor device by measuring the change in transconductance as a function of time for a given device over a short period of time. The change in the transconductance as a function of time, i.e., the slope of the degradation curve, is measured and then compared to a reference value. The present invention thus allows the use of hot-carrier stress method to determine plasma damage in a time efficient manner without the need of applying high acceleration voltages.