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:
Jun. 06, 2017
Filed:
Jul. 09, 2015
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Antonietta Oliva, San Jose, CA (US);
John G. Dorsey, San Francisco, CA (US);
Keith Cox, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Norman J. Rohrer, San Jose, CA (US);
Sribalan Santhanam, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Sung Wook Kang, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Mohamed H. Abu-Rama, Mountain View, CA (US);
Ashish R. Jain, Santa Clara, CA (US);
Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US);
Abstract
In an embodiment, the amount of supply voltage guardband to prevent incorrect operation due to aging effects may be modeled using an IC-specific age model generated early in the product life cycle of the IC. For example, high temperature operating life (HTOL) testing may be performed at multiple temperatures and/or voltages to develop the IC-specific age model. The IC-specific age model may be more accurate then the calculations used to develop guardband voltage as discussed previously, which rely on the aging of a single transistor. The IC-specific age model may be used along with monitoring of the aging effects during operation of the IC to predict an amount of increased guardband voltage that is currently desirable to apply to the IC. The predicted amount may vary from about zero when the IC is new to the full amount of guardband voltage when the IC is nearing end of life.