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US 5,627,477 AGranted
Semiconductor device and burn-in method thereof
AssigneeKabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
InventorsTadahiro Kuroda, Makoto Noda
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The semiconductor device includes a circuit, such as, an ECL circuit for comparing input signals with a reference potential determined as a circuit threshold value and outputting an output signal according to the comparison result. The semiconductor device further includes a switching circuit for switching the reference potential level between ordinary operation and burn-in operation of the ECL circuit. The time required for the burn-in operation can be reduced markedly.
Claims7
A semiconductor device, comprising:
- compare means for comparing an input signal potential having a level that is less than a maximum level and greater than a minimum level with a reference potential which is set to an intermediate level between the maximum level and the minimum level to output an output signal according to the comparison result in an ordinary operation, and
- switching means for switching the reference potential level from the intermediate level set during the ordinary operation to a level higher than the maximum level and then to another level lower than the minimum level during a burn-in operation.
A semiconductor device, comprising:
- comparing means for comparing an input signal potential having a level that is less than a maximum level and greater than a minimum level with a reference potential which is set to a first intermediate level between the maximum level and the minimum level, and for outputting an output signal according to the comparison result in an ordinary operation,
- setting means for setting the input signal potential during a burn-in operation to a second intermediate level half-way between the maximum level and the minimum level of the input signal potential, and
- switching means for switching the reference potential level from the first intermediate level set during the ordinary operation to a level higher than the second intermediate level and then to another level lower than the second intermediate level during the burn-in operation.
A semiconductor device, comprising:
- compare means for comparing, as a first comparison result, a first input signal potential having a first level that is less than a first maximum level and greater than a first minimum level with a first reference potential which is set to a first intermediate level between the first maximum level and the first minimum level to output a first output signal according to the first comparison result in an ordinary operation, and for comparing, as a second comparison result, a second input signal potential having a second level that is less than a second maximum level and greater than a second minimum level with a second reference potential which is set to a second intermediate level between the second maximum level and the second minimum level to output a second output signal according to the second comparison result in the ordinary operation;
- and
- switching means for switching the first reference potential level from the first intermediate level set during the ordinary operation to a level higher than the first maximum level and then to another level lower than the first minimum level during a burn-in operation, and for switching the second reference potential level from the second intermediate level set during the ordinary operation to still another level higher than the second maximum level and then to a still further level lower than the second minimum level during the burn-in operation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.