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:
Mar. 22, 2005
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2000
Hiroshi Sonobe, Osaka, JP;
Hiroshi Sonobe, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
The present invention provides a semiconductor inspection method which detects a short circuit failure of adjacent lines having the possibility of a short circuit occurring, which short circuit failure cannot be detected by the conventional semiconductor inspection methods. The semiconductor inspection method comprises steps of: extracting adjacent lines having the possibility of a short circuit occurring between the lines from a layout patter of a semiconductor (step S), obtaining input logical values such that one of the adjacent lines has a logical value '1' while the other has a logical value '0' (step S), and monitoring outputs of a logical circuit which receives the input logical values, thereby to compare the outputs with output logical values which are expected when the input logical values are input to the logical circuit (step S). Therefore, the short circuit failure of the adjacent lines in the logical circuit can be correctly detected in a short time.