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. 17, 2009
Filed:
Oct. 19, 2006
Kenneth J. Goodnow, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Douglas W. Kemerer, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Stephen G. Shuma, Underhill, VT (US);
Oscar C. Strohacker, Leander, TX (US);
Mark S. Styduhar, Hinesburg, VT (US);
Peter A. Twembly, Shelburne, VT (US);
Paul S. Zuchewski, Jericho, VT (US);
Kenneth J. Goodnow, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Douglas W. Kemerer, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Stephen G. Shuma, Underhill, VT (US);
Oscar C. Strohacker, Leander, TX (US);
Mark S. Styduhar, Hinesburg, VT (US);
Peter A. Twembly, Shelburne, VT (US);
Paul S. Zuchewski, Jericho, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The embodiments of the invention provide an apparatus and method for detection and compensation of negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) induced threshold degradation. A semiconductor device is provided comprising at least one stress device having a voltage applied to its gate node and at least one reference device having a zero gate-to-source voltage. A controller is also provided to configure node voltages of the device and/or the reference device to reflect different regions of device operations found in digital and analog circuit applications. Moreover, the controller measures a difference in current between the stress device and the reference device to determine whether NBTI induced threshold degradation has occurred in the stress device. The controller also adjusts an output power supply voltage of the stress device until a performance of the stress device matches a performance of the reference device to account for the NBTI induced threshold degradation.