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Contactless Testing of Integrated Circuits During Fabrication

总结

Lead Inventors: Peter Kinget, Ph.DProblem or Unmet Need:The testing of circuits on wafers during the manufacturing process is a significant and growing problem in the electronic components manufacturing industry, particularly given the growing complexity and density of components per wafer area. In order to test an electronic component during manufacturing, it is necessary to deliver power to the component. Conventional approaches of delivering power to electronic components do so by making physical contact with the component. This approach is risky because the electronic components may be damaged due to physical contact, electro-static discharge, and contamination. This invention aims to overcome the challenges of testing circuits on wafers during the manufacturing process by allowing the contactless powering-up of a circuit on a silicon wafer using small sized spiral inductors. Testing circuits, such as ring oscillators (RO), can be used to determine whether the wafer or die is within qualification before continuing the remaining fabrication steps. The IC testing infrastructure was demonstrated in a 90nm CMOS process using 150mm x 150mm sized inductors for power transmission at ~2.6 GHz. It was demonstrated that precise voltage rectification and regulation could be achieved on chip to provide a 1-V DC power supply with sufficient accuracy for variation analysis of ring oscillators.

技术优势

Output signal from the RO can be coupled out through the same inductive link so that true contactless chip testing is enabled The circuitry requires chip space comparable to that of the inductor and, using proper design (see M05-084), can be placed entirely below the inductor to save space Layouts can be developed using only one layer of metal interconnect for early-stage testing Probe inductor can be built on a flexible substrate to allow very close proximity to the on-chip inductor

技术应用

Testing of circuits and semiconductor devices during the fabrication process Can be used as part of a corrective fabrication system to adjust circuit performance

详细技术说明

This invention aims to overcome the challenges of testing circuits on wafers during the manufacturing process by allowing the contactless powering-up of a circuit on a silicon wafer using small sized spiral inductors. Testing circuits, such as ...

*Abstract

None

*Inquiry

Jim Aloise Columbia Technology Ventures Tel: (212) 854-8444 Email: TechTransfer@columbia.edu

*IR

M08-037

*Principal Investigation

*Publications

2.6-GHz RF inductive power delivery for contactless on-wafer characterization, Tompson, J., Dolin, A., & Kinget, P., 2008 IEEE Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures, 175 - 179 (2008).

*Web Links

WIPO: WO/2009/065040

国家/地区

美国