Method for making die-compensated threshold tuning circuit
AssigneeSun Microsystems, Inc.
InventorJames B. Burr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To compensate for process, activity and environmental variations in a semiconductor device, a back-bias potential tuning circuit is formed on a semiconductor die. The tuning circuit tunes a bias potential applied to the semiconductor die to maintain a predetermined ratio between a transistor on-current and a transistor off-current through at least one channel region. Then, a leakage current is measured for multiple transistors formed in the semiconductor die to determine a representative leakage of the semiconductor die. Tuning characteristics of the back-bias potential tuning circuit are then set to match the representative leakage of the semiconductor die.
Claims18
A method of forming a semiconductor device, comprising:
- forming a back-bias potential tuning circuit which tunes a bias potential applied to a semiconductor die to bring a threshold voltage of at least one channel region within the semiconductor die to a target value;
- measuring a leakage current of multiple transistors formed in the semiconductor die;
- determining a representative leakage of the semiconductor die from the measured leakage of the multiple transistors;
- and
- setting a tuning characteristic of the back-bias potential tuning circuit to match the representative leakage of the semiconductor die.
A method of forming a semiconductor device comprising:
- forming a back-bias potential tuning circuit which tunes a bias potential applied to a semiconductor die to bring a threshold voltage of at least one channel region within the semiconductor die to a target value;
- subjecting the semiconductor die to worst case operating conditions and determining a target back-bias potential at which the semiconductor die is operational under the worst case operating conditions;
- and
- setting a tuning characteristic of the back-bias potential tuning circuit to cause the tuning circuit to generate the target back-bias potential under the worst case operating conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.