Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Differential plate line screen test for ferroelectric latch circuits
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Application No.: US12781601Application Date: 2010-05-17
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Publication No.: US08416598B2Publication Date: 2013-04-09
- Inventor: Scott R. Summerfelt , John Anthony Rodriguez , Hugh P. McAdams , Steven Craig Bartling
- Applicant: Scott R. Summerfelt , John Anthony Rodriguez , Hugh P. McAdams , Steven Craig Bartling
- Applicant Address: US TX Dallas
- Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
- Current Assignee: Texas Instruments Incorporated
- Current Assignee Address: US TX Dallas
- Agent Rose Alyssa Keagy; Wade J. Brady, III; Frederick J. Telecky, Jr.
- Main IPC: G11C11/22
- IPC: G11C11/22

Abstract:
Non-volatile latch circuits, such as in memory cells and flip-flops, that are constructed for reliability screening. The non-volatile latch circuits each include ferroelectric capacitors coupled to storage nodes, for example at the outputs of cross-coupled inverters. Separate plate lines are connected to the ferroelectric capacitors of the complementary storage nodes. A time-zero test of the latch stability margin is performed by setting a logic state at the storage nodes, then programming the state into the ferroelectric capacitors by polarization. After power-down, the plate lines are biased with a differential voltage relative to one another, and the latch is then powered up to attempt recall of the programmed state. The differential voltage disturbs the recall, and provides a measure of the cell margin and its later-life reliability.
Public/Granted literature
- US20100296329A1 Differential Plate Line Screen Test for Ferroelectric Latch Circuits Public/Granted day:2010-11-25
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