Methods and circuits for measuring the thermal resistance of a packaged IC
AssigneeXilinx, Inc.
InventorsSteven H. C. Hsieh, Siuki Chan
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed is a DC thermal energy generator for heating localized regions of an integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a pair of static circuits whose outputs are shorted, and are in contention. Contention causes current to flow through the circuits, generating heat. Integrated-circuit temperature can be varied by turning on more or fewer thermal energy generators. The thermal resistance of a packaged integrated circuit is computed using a well-known relationship among the integrated circuit's measured temperature, power consumption, and the ambient temperature.
Claims7
A method of determining thermal resistance of a packaged programmable logic device, wherein the packaged programmable logic device includes a package enclosing a programmable logic device on a die, the programmable logic device having a temperature sensor, configurable logic elements, and configurable interconnect lines, the method comprising:
- providing a set of the configurable logic elements and configurable interconnect lines in the programmable logic device;
- configuring a configurable interconnect line of an electrical conduction path between an output terminal of a first gate and an output terminal of a second gate to form at least one DC thermal energy generator;
- and
- determining and storing a thermal resistance of the packaged programmable logic device after applying a signal to the DC thermal energy generator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.