Predictive chip-maintenance
AssigneeInfineon Technologies AG
InventorsIrmgard Escher-Poeppel, Thorsten Meyer, Gerhard Poeppel
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure describes to techniques for detecting field failures or performance degradation of circuits, including integrated circuits (IC), by including additional contacts, i.e. terminals, along with the functional contacts that used for connecting the circuit to a system in which the circuit is a part. These additional contacts may be used to measure dynamic changing electrical characteristics over time e.g. voltage, current, temperature and impedance. These electrical characteristics may be representative of a certain failure mode and may be an indicator for circuit state-of-health (SOH), while the circuit is performing in the field.
Claims28
A device comprising:
- a circuit configured to perform one or more circuit operations;
- a circuit test element;
- and
- an additional terminal,
- wherein the circuit test element is located between the circuit and the additional terminal, and
- wherein a change over time of a measured electrical characteristic at the additional terminal indicates a state of health (SOH) of the circuit.
A system comprising:
- a circuit package comprising:
- a circuit, the circuit configured to perform one or more circuit operations;
- a circuit test element;
- an additional terminal,
- wherein the circuit test element is located between the circuit and the additional terminal, and
- wherein a change over time of an electrical characteristic measured at the additional terminal indicates a state of health (SOH) of the circuit package;
- and
- measurement circuitry configured to:
- measure the electrical characteristic;
- and
- electrically connect to the additional terminal,
- wherein the measurement circuitry is configured to determine the change over time of the electrical characteristic while the circuit is performing the one or more circuit operations.
A method comprising:
- connecting a measurement circuitry to a power supply terminal of a circuit package, wherein the circuit package is configured to perform one or more circuit operations outside of a test environment;
- connecting the measurement circuitry to an additional terminal, wherein a circuit test element is located between the power supply terminal of the circuit package and the additional terminal;
- measuring an electrical characteristic between the power supply terminal and the additional terminal at a first time;
- measuring the electrical characteristic between the power supply terminal and the additional terminal at a second time subsequent to the first time;
- comparing the electrical characteristic determined at the first time to the electrical characteristic determined at the second time;
- determining a state of health (SOH) of the circuit package outside of the test environment based on a change in the electrical characteristic determined at the first time to the electrical characteristic determined at the second time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.