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:
Aug. 23, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 17, 2003
Vijay Kumar Reddy, Plano, TX (US);
Robert L. Pitts, Dallas, TX (US);
Vijay Kumar Reddy, Plano, TX (US);
Robert L. Pitts, Dallas, TX (US);
Texas Instruments Incorporated, Dallas, TX (US);
Abstract
According to one embodiment, a method for isolating degradation mechanisms in transistors includes providing a ring oscillator having a plurality of delay elements. Each delay element operates as a delay element through the use of one or more transistors of only a first type and no transistors of the opposite type. The method further includes operating the ring oscillator and measuring the frequency resulting from the ring oscillator over time. The magnitude of an isolated degradation mechanism is determined based on a comparison of the measured frequency and an expected frequency for the ring oscillator absent degradation.