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:
May. 29, 2007
Filed:
Jun. 04, 2004
Applicants:
Franklin Duan, San Jose, CA (US);
Maureen Ardans, Gresham, OR (US);
Jun Song, Cupertino, CA (US);
Inventors:
Assignee:
LSI Corporation, Milpitas, CA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G01R 31/26 (2006.01); H01L 21/66 (2006.01); H01L 23/58 (2006.01); H01L 29/10 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
The present invention is test structures in unused areas of semiconductor integrated circuits and methods for designing the same. In an exemplary aspect of the present invention, a method for placing test structures in a semiconductor integrated circuit includes: (a) detecting a dummy area in a semiconductor integrated circuit, the semiconductor integrated circuit including probe pads on a top metal layer; (b) filling the dummy area with active test cells, the active test cells being connected to one another; and (c) connecting each of the active test cells to the probe pads with a metal line.