Internal voltage generating circuit of a semiconductor...

Details Internal voltage generating circuit of a semiconductor... Internal voltage generating circuit of a semiconductor...

1999-06-17

2001-02-06

Nelms, David (Department: 2818)

Miscellaneous active electrical nonlinear devices, circuits, and

Specific signal discriminating without subsequent control

By pulse width or spacing

C365S225700

Reexamination Certificate

active

06184720

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to an internal voltage generating circuit of semiconductor device.
Currently, the semiconductor device generally includes an internal voltage generating circuit for generating an internal voltage, the level of which is typically lower than an external power voltage. For example, the internal voltage generating circuit in a semiconductor memory device such as EDO DRAM reduces 3.3 V external power voltage to 2.8 V internal power voltage.
However, due to deviation in the fabrication process, the voltage level of the internal voltage generating circuit of semiconductor device may not be the desired voltage level. For repairing these defects in a test stage of such a semiconductor device, there has been proposed a fuse programmable internal voltage generating circuit.
FIG. 1
is a block diagram for illustrating a general internal voltage generating circuit of semiconductor device, which is programmable.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, the internal voltage generating circuit
100
comprises a reference voltage generator
200
, a fuse programmable control signal generator
300
, a voltage level trimming unit
400
and an internal voltage driver
500
and the generated internal power voltage Vint is applied to an internal circuit
600
.
The reference voltage generator
200
generates a predetermined level of reference voltage Vr
1
irrespective of the change of temperature and/or the change of external power voltage, so as to apply the Vr
1
to the voltage level trimming unit
400
.
The fuse programmable control signal generator
300
includes a plurality of fuses, which are programmed (this means that the fuses are selectively cut) at test stage. Thus, according to the programmed fuse state, one of the multiple control signals S is active. The voltage level trimming unit
400
trims the level of the reference voltage Vr
1
so as to apply its output Vr
2
to the internal voltage driver
500
. At this time, the degree of trimming depends on the multiple control signal S. The internal voltage driver
500
generates the internal power voltage Vint for driving the internal circuit
600
, based on the voltage Vr
2
. That is, the output voltage Vr
2
of the voltage level trimming unit
400
can be controlled by suitably programming(e.g. selectively cutting) the fuses included in the fuse programmable control signal generator
300
and the level of the internal power voltage Vint can be controlled in turn.
The test for the semiconductor device having such a fuse programmable internal voltage generating circuit as this must be performed as follows. First, the level of the internal power voltage Vint is measured in a test equipment. Then, the semiconductor device must be carried to a repair equipment and then the fuses included in the internal voltage generating circuit are selectively cut in the repair equipment so as to trim the internal power voltage Vint. After the internal power voltage Vint is trimmed, the semiconductor device must be carried back to the test equipment, so as to pre-test the function of the semiconductor device to determine, for example, whether the memory operation such as data read/write cycle is ordinarily performed or not in the semiconductor memory device. If any defect exists, the semiconductor device is carried to the repair equipment again so that the fuses included in the function blocks of the semiconductor device may be selectively cut for repairing. This repair, for example, includes the repair for row and column repairs in a semiconductor device. After the repair for the function block in semiconductor device is finished, the semiconductor device is carried to the test equipment once again in order to perform the post-test.
As shown, the semiconductor device including the general internal voltage generating circuit has problems in that the semiconductor device must be carried to and from the test equipment and the repair equipment repeatedly and in turn the time for test & repair is needlessly long and the manufacturing process is also needlessly troublesome.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is devised for solving the above problems. The object of the present invention is to provide an internal voltage generating circuit of semiconductor device, which is capable of reducing the number of times must be carried the semiconductor device must be carried between a test equipment and a repair equipment during test & repair process.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an internal voltage generating circuit of semiconductor device, which can simplify the process of test & repair.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for generating an internal voltage of semiconductor device.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention in order to achieve the object, there is provided an internal voltage generating circuit in semiconductor device for converting an external power voltage Vext applied from the semiconductor device into an internal power voltage Vint for driving an internal circuit, comprising: a plurality of test power voltage pads, each of which can be selectively applied with the external power voltage Vext and a ground voltage Vss during test; a fuse programmable control signal generator coupled to the plurality of test power voltage pads, for generating a control signal S according to the signals applied to the plurality of the test power voltage pads during test, and for generating control signal according to the fuse-programmed state after, at least, one fuse included therein is programmed; a reference voltage generator for receiving the external power voltage Vext so as to produce a reference voltage Vr
1
having a predetermined level; and a voltage trimming unit for trimming the reference voltage Vr
1
in accordance with the output of the fuse programmable control signal generator.
The internal voltage generating circuit in semiconductor device may further comprise an internal voltage driver for receiving the output of the voltage level trimming unit so as to produce the internal power voltage Vint for driving the internal circuit. Also, it may further include a reference voltage amplifier coupled between the reference voltage generator and the voltage level trimming unit, for amplifying the reference voltage Vr
1
and producing the amplified reference voltage Vr
3
to the voltage level trimming unit.
According to one preferred embodiment, the internal voltage generating circuit in semiconductor device further includes: a stress voltage generator for receiving the external power voltage Vext and generating a stress voltage V
stress
proportional to the external power voltage; and a reference voltage modifying unit for inputting the trimmed reference voltage Vr
2
which is output of the voltage level trimming unit and the stress voltage V
stress
, and for producing the trimmed reference voltage Vr
2
when the external power voltage is equal to or lower than a predetermined level and for producing the stress voltage V
stress
when the external power voltage Vext is higher than the predetermined level. At this time, an internal voltage driver for receiving the output of the voltage level trimming unit so as to produce the internal power voltage Vint for driving the internal circuit may be further included. Here, the internal voltage driver may include an operation mode signal generator for generating an operation mode signal representing whether an operation mode of the semiconductor device is active mode or stand-by mode; an active internal voltage driver activated when the operation mode signal represents active mode, so as to generate the internal power voltage for driving the internal circuit, based on the stress reference voltage, the stress reference voltage being the output of the reference voltage modifying unit; and a stand-by internal voltage driver activated irrespective of the operation mode signal, so as to generate the internal power voltage for driving the internal circuit, bas

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