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. 01, 2009
Filed:
Nov. 14, 2005
Wai Cheong Chan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Wai Cheong Chan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
National Semiconductor Corporation, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A process corner indicator circuit can be included with each die formed from a silicon wafer in order to quickly and easily give a determination of process corner. A clock generator circuit of the indicator circuit can include an array of flip-flop elements, and can be run at a lower operating voltage, such that the differences in delay in the generated timing signal are accentuated for different process corners. The period of the timing signal can be determined using slow and fast clock counters, with the slow clock counting a number of cycles of the timing signal and the fast clock counting a number of cycles of a fixed frequency. The count produced by the fast clock can correspond to the delay in the clock generator circuit, giving an indication of the process corner of the die.