Electricity: measuring and testing – Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components – Of individual circuit component or element
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-14
2003-01-07
Sherry, Michael (Department: 2829)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Fault detecting in electric circuits and of electric components
Of individual circuit component or element
C324S427000, C324S763010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06504394
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a configuration for trimming reference voltages which are produced in semiconductor chips that are provided in a semiconductor wafer. In the configuration, the reference voltages are compared in a test program with an externally supplied voltage, and correction information is used to match them to the external voltage as a respective nominal value of the reference voltages, which is the same for all the semiconductor chips in the semiconductor wafer. Such a configuration is known from Published, Non-Prosecuted German Patent Application DE 196 41 857 A1 (which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,889).
Semiconductor chips, or integrated circuits produced in semiconductor chips, often require regulated internal voltages to prevent their operation from being sensitive to fluctuations in external voltage supplies. The voltage regulation is in this case preferably carried out with the aid of a reference voltage that is produced internally and has a particularly low sensitivity to temperature.
Owing to the parameter fluctuations that are virtually always present in the manufacture of semiconductor chips, such as diffusion temperatures etc., the reference voltage values have a certain distribution range, which cannot be ignored, in finished semiconductor chips. In order to keep this distribution range as small as possible and in order to produce an identical reference voltage, and/or. identical internal voltages, for all the semiconductor chips, the reference voltage is trimmed in a test program, which is also used to check the operability of the semiconductor chip. In order to allow this, the semiconductor chip is provided with appropriate logic to convert correction information, which can be stored in laser fuses, into a voltage change.
Semiconductor chips and, in particular, semiconductor memories are at the moment preferably intensively tested at the wafer level, which is more cost-effective than testing at the chip level. The trimming is in this case carried out in such a way that the voltage to be trimmed is measured, and a chip-specific correction address is then calculated on the basis of the measured value obtained in this way. If necessary, the correction value obtained by use of the correction address in this way can then be programmed into the semiconductor chip via special test modes, so that the value obtained in this way can then be corrected once again in a further trimming step. However, such trimming is relatively time-consuming and must be carried out separately for each semiconductor chip.
Furthermore, the following must also be kept in mind. While functional tests for a number of semiconductor chips can be carried out in parallel, the test time for trimming cannot be reduced by increasing the parallelity. As the parallelity for wafer tests becomes ever greater, this leads to the proportion of the test time that is required for trimming becoming ever greater. In particular, in the case of full-wafer tests, which are a future configuration aim, that is to say for parallel testing of an entire wafer, it is impossible to prevent the test time from being lengthened, thus increasing the costs.
At the moment, semiconductor chips are trimmed serially. In the process, for example, a conventional test program can run in parallel for n semiconductor chips, with n having the value 16, for example. Contact is made with the semiconductor chips in parallel, using special needle (probe) cards. For any subsequent trimming step, (n−1) semiconductor chips are then, for example, masked out in each case, and a correction address is determined for the respectively remaining semiconductor chip. The trimming is in this way carried out serially for all n semiconductor chips, which involves a considerable time penalty.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a configuration for trimming reference voltages in semiconductor chips, in particular semiconductor memories which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices, which allows the trimming of reference voltages in semiconductor chips to be carried out quickly and cost-effectively.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a semiconductor chip having a circuit configuration for trimming a reference voltage produced by the semiconductor chip. The circuit configuration contains a trimming circuit that receives the reference voltage. A voltage comparator is connected to the trimming circuit and receives the reference voltage. The voltage comparator compares the reference voltage with an externally supplied test voltage resulting in the voltage comparator outputting a comparison signal. A test logic unit is connected downstream from the voltage comparator and to the trimming circuit. The test logic unit receives and evaluates the comparison signal and generates corrective information received by the trimming circuit if the reference voltage and the test voltage do not match, and the trimming circuit uses the corrective information for changing the reference voltage.
For the configuration of the type mentioned initially, the object is achieved according to the invention by the test logic unit, which is provided on each semiconductor chip and is connected downstream from the voltage comparator. The voltage comparator is provided in the semiconductor chip and compares the externally supplied voltage with the reference voltage which is supplied from, and is varied by, a trimming circuit.
The configuration according to the invention thus allows the trimming of the reference voltages to be moved from a test set directly onto the semiconductor chip to be trimmed, and this has considerable associated advantages.
First, the time, and thus the test costs as well, required for trimming are considerably reduced, with the saving becoming greater the greater the number of semiconductor chips which are tested in parallel using the configuration according to the invention. Since there is no longer any need for an external test set, there is no need for direct-current voltage measurement units either, and this is of particular importance for high parallelity. Specifically, with some test sets, the maximum number of such voltage measurement units available is less than the number of semiconductor chips to be tested in parallel. The test program to be carried out by the configuration is simplified, since this allows all the semiconductor chips to be tested in parallel.
Large-scale-integrated circuits in semiconductor chips should preferably be subjected to a self-test program in which only a limited number of external control signals are still required and provided for monitoring a test sequence. In contrast to the situation with iterative trimming, the configuration according to the invention results in that no correction addresses be transferred to a semiconductor chip. However, self-trimming is a necessary supplement for any far-reaching self-test strategy in which the interface to the semiconductor chip is reduced to such a great extent that it is no longer possible to transfer correction addresses.
The configuration according to the invention now requires an external test set only to provide a comparison voltage, so that one line to, or one contact with, a test probe of this test set is sufficient. This represents a considerable simplification in comparison to conventional configurations, in which a separate line to each of the n semiconductor chips with which parallel contact is made is required for voltage measurement.
The essential feature of the present invention is thus that the trimming is carried out by a special configuration on the semiconductor chip to be trimmed. In the process, a steady-state comparison voltage is applied to each semiconductor chip by an external voltage source, which is present in an external test set. The configuration according to the invention then automatically trims the trimmable internal voltages to the externally
Greenberg Laurence A.
Hollington Jermele
Infineon - Technologies AG
Locher Ralph E.
Sherry Michael
LandOfFree
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