Method and apparatus for de-embedding
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorHsiu-Ying Cho
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A short dummy test structure is disclosed, including a grounded shield layer above a substrate, at least two signal test pads, and a signal transmission line above the grounded shield layer and between the two signal test pads, wherein the signal transmission line is electrically coupled to the grounded shield layer. In one embodiment, the signal transmission line has a smaller total length than a total length of a corresponding signal transmission line and a device-under-test (DUT) of a test structure including the DUT. A de-embedding apparatus and method of de-embedding utilizing such a short dummy test structure are also disclosed.
Claims20
A short dummy test structure, comprising:
- a grounded shield layer above a substrate;
- at least two signal test pads;
- and
- a signal transmission line above the grounded shield layer and between the two signal test pads, wherein the signal transmission line comprises a lower conductive layer and upper conductive layers that are adjacent to the signal test pads, wherein the lower conductive layer is not collinear with the upper conductive layers, electrically couples the upper conductive layers to the grounded shield layer and is parallel and in between the upper conductive layers, and wherein the signal transmission line has a smaller total length than a total length of a corresponding signal transmission line and a device-under-test (DUT) of a test structure including the DUT.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a test structure including a device-under-test (DUT) coupled to a left signal pad by a first transmission line and a right signal pad by a second transmission line;
- a short dummy test structure, including:
- a grounded shield layer above a substrate;
- at least two signal test pads;
- and
- a third signal transmission line above the grounded shield layer and between the two signal test pads, wherein the third signal transmission line comprises a lower conductive layer and upper conductive layers that are adjacent to the signal test pads, wherein the lower conductive layer is not collinear with the upper conductive layers, electrically couples the upper conductive layers to the grounded shield layer and is parallel and in between the upper conductive layers, and wherein the third signal transmission line has a smaller total length than a total length of the first transmission line, the DUT, and the second transmission line.
A method of de-embedding, comprising:
- forming a test structure including a device-under-test (DUT) coupled to a left signal pad by a first transmission line and a right signal pad by a second transmission line;
- forming a plurality of dummy test structures, at least one dummy test structure being a short dummy test structure including a grounded shield layer above a substrate, at least two signal test pads, and a third signal transmission line above the grounded shield layer and between the two signal test pads, wherein the third signal transmission line comprises a lower conductive layer and upper conductive layers that are adjacent to the signal test pads, wherein the lower conductive layer is not collinear with the upper conductive layers, electrically couples the upper conductive layers to the grounded shield layer and is parallel and in between the upper conductive layers, and wherein the third signal transmission line has a smaller total length than a total length of the first transmission line, the DUT, and the second transmission line;
- measuring transmission parameters of the test structure and the dummy test structures including the short dummy test structure;
- and
- determining intrinsic transmission parameters of the DUT using the transmission parameters of the test structure and the plurality of dummy test structures including the short dummy test structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.