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:
Dec. 06, 2005
Filed:
Mar. 01, 2002
Peter G. Borden, San Mateo, CA (US);
Ji-ping LI, Fremont, CA (US);
Peter G. Borden, San Mateo, CA (US);
Ji-Ping Li, Fremont, CA (US);
Boxer Cross, INC, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
Heat is applied to a conductive structure that includes one or more vias, and the temperature at or near the point of heat application is measured. The measured temperature indicates the integrity or the defectiveness of various features (e.g. vias and/or traces) in the conductive structure, near the point of heat application. Specifically, a higher temperature measurement (as compared to a measurement in a reference structure) indicates a reduced heat transfer from the point of heat application, and therefore indicates a defect. The reference structure can be in the same die as the conductive structure (e.g. to provide a baseline) or outside the die but in the same wafer (e.g. in a test structure) or outside the wafer (e.g. in a reference wafer), depending on the embodiment.