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US 5,670,825 AGranted
Integrated circuit package with internally readable permanent identification of device characteristics
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorsJohn W. Hyde, Abby M. Schwartz, David A. Brown
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated circuit (IC) device package that includes permanent identification regarding the device characteristics, wherein the permanent identification are at or below the surface of the package and may indicate the operating frequency of an IC die within the package, as well as voltage requirements, etc.
Claims20
An integrated circuit device comprising:
- a package encapsulating an integrated circuit die having an on-chip driver and an input buffer;
- and
- at least one conductive indicator coupled through a portion of the package to the on-chip driver and the input buffer to encode a characteristic of said integrated circuit die based on electrical continuity of said at least one indicator from the on-chip driver to the input buffer.
A method of determining a characteristic of an integrated circuit device having a package, said method comprising the steps of:
- encoding the characteristic permanently into the package by cutting metal traces disposed beneath the surface of the package;
- the device reading the characteristic through input buffers coupled to the metal traces by driving output buffers coupled to the metal traces.
An integrated circuit device comprising a package comprising:
- a package encapsulating an integrated circuit die having an on-chip driver and an input buffer and first and second signal planes;
- at least one conductive indicator, coupled through a portion of the package to the on-chip driver via the first signal plane and the input buffer via the second signal plane, to encode a characteristic of the integrated circuit die based on electrical continuity of said at least one conductive indicator from the on-chip driver to the input buffer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.