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:
Jul. 11, 2006
Filed:
Apr. 22, 2005
Eddie Williamson, Ft. Collins, CO (US);
Eddie Williamson, Ft. Collins, CO (US);
Agilent Technologies, Inc., Palo Alto, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is a method an apparatus for diagnosing short defects on inaccessible or non-contacted nodes of an integrated circuit device using capacitive coupling techniques. In accordance with the invention, an alternating current (AC) signal generator is connected to apply an alternating current (AC) signal to an accessible node of an IC device under test. Preferably, all remaining accessible nodes of the IC device under test are grounded. A sensor plate of a capacitive sensing probe is placed in signal coupling proximity to the inaccessible node of interest on the integrated circuit device. If a signal is present on the inaccessible node of interest, it is capacitively coupled to the sensor plate of the probe. A measurement device obtains a measurement representative of an amount of current flow capacitively coupled to the sensor plate by the capacitive sensing probe. The possible existence of a short defect between the stimulated accessible node and the inaccessible node can be inferred based on the measurement and/or on a parameter derived from the measurement.