Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Self-contained, path-level aging monitor apparatus and method
- Patent Title (中): 独立的路径级别老化监控装置和方法
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Application No.: US13976931Application Date: 2011-09-28
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Publication No.: US09229054B2Publication Date: 2016-01-05
- Inventor: Keith A. Bowman , Carlos Tokunaga , James W. Tschanz
- Applicant: Keith A. Bowman , Carlos Tokunaga , James W. Tschanz
- Applicant Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Assignee: Intel Corporation
- Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Santa Clara
- Agency: Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, P.C.
- International Application: PCT/US2011/053790 WO 20110928
- International Announcement: WO2013/048398 WO 20130404
- Main IPC: G01R31/3187
- IPC: G01R31/3187 ; G01R31/317 ; G01R31/3193 ; G01R31/26 ; G01R31/28 ; G06F1/10

Abstract:
An aging monitor circuit that provides a more accurate estimate of aging and/or delay in a circuit and/or circuit path. The aging monitor circuit employs a separate aging path with driving and receiving flip flops (FFs) and a tunable replica circuit (TRC) to enable measurements of single-transition DC-stressed path delay that only propagates through stressed transistors or other circuit element(s). A finite state machine (FSM) in the aging monitor circuit is configured to adjust a frequency of a clock signal output by a digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) in response to an error signal output by the receiving FF. The error signal is generated in response to single-transition DC-stressed path delay; and therefore enables the adjustment of the frequency of the dock signal to correspond to an amount or effect of the delay.
Public/Granted literature
- US20130285685A1 SELF-CONTAINED, PATH-LEVEL AGING MONITOR APPARATUS AND METHOD Public/Granted day:2013-10-31
Information query
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