Electricity: measuring and testing – Measuring – testing – or sensing electricity – per se – Frequency of cyclic current or voltage
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-11
2003-07-22
Oda, Christine (Department: 2858)
Electricity: measuring and testing
Measuring, testing, or sensing electricity, per se
Frequency of cyclic current or voltage
Reexamination Certificate
active
06597162
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device on which at least a VCO and a frequency divider for constructing a PLL (phase-locked loop) circuit are fabricated, in which the frequency divider has a control input for simplifying a test, and a method and apparatus for testing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG.
11
(A) is a schematic block diagram of a prior art testing apparatus for a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO)
10
. FIG.
11
(B) shows a relationship between the control voltage VC and the output frequency of the VCO
10
.
The VCO
10
is plugged into a socket of a test board, the control voltage VC is applied to the VCO
10
from a tester
12
and the outgoing clock signal OUT of the VCO
10
is provided to the tester
12
. The tester
12
checks on whether or not the frequency of the outgoing clock signal OUT falls within a tolerance when the control voltage VC is each of V
1
, V
2
and V
3
, and if the frequency of the outgoing clock signal OUT falls within the tolerance for each control voltage VC, the VCO
10
is judged to be acceptable in quality (pass)
However, even if the VCO
10
is judged to be acceptable in quality, when the VCO
10
is employed in a PLL circuit, it has to be checked whether or not the PLL circuit can enter into a locked state in a given time for a reference clock signal, which causes a test cost to be high. Especially, when the VCO
10
is fabricated on one chip together with a frequency divider and others, it has been required to reduce a device test time to save the cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a PLL semiconductor device, including at least a VCO and a frequency divider, capable of reducing its test time by performing a test on the PLL semiconductor device in a simpler manner, and a method and apparatus for testing the PLL semiconductor device.
In one aspect of the present invention, to test a semiconductor device, comprising the steps of: preparing a PLL circuit whose VCO and programmable frequency divider by integer M are built in the semiconductor device, the frequency divider dividing a frequency of an incoming clock signal or an outgoing clock signal from the VCO; setting the integer M to a first value larger and a second value smaller than a value in normal use by user; checking whether or not the PLL circuit enters into a locked state within a given time period in each case of the integer M being set to the first and second values; and judging whether or not the semiconductor device is acceptable in quality based on the result of the checking.
With this aspect of the present invention, since operation check is performed not only on VCO but also on the PLL circuit as a whole, the test is simpler than the prior art in which operation tests on VCO and the PLL circuit are performed independently, and a test time is reduced, thereby enabling decrease in test cost.
Other aspects, objects, and the advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5359727 (1994-10-01), Kurita
patent: 5973571 (1999-10-01), Suzuki
patent: 6037814 (2000-03-01), Hirakawa
patent: A-64-49424 (1989-02-01), None
patent: 64-49424 (1989-02-01), None
patent: 08-316833 (1996-11-01), None
patent: 09-181133 (1997-07-01), None
Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn
Fujitsu Limited
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