Method of testing semiconductor devices and system for testing semiconductor devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10324128-B2
Application number	US-201715615850-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2017
Priority date	Dec 30, 2016
Publication date	Jun 18, 2019
Grant date	Jun 18, 2019

Abstract

Provided are a method of testing semiconductor device and a system for testing semiconductor device. The method includes measuring a minimum operating voltage of each of a plurality of sample semiconductor devices and an operating frequency of corresponding ring oscillators included in each of the plurality of sample semiconductor devices, generating a model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of the sample semiconductor devices, measuring an operating frequency of ring oscillators included in a target semiconductor device, and determining a target minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device based on the operating frequency of the ring oscillators of the target semiconductor device and the model.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of testing a semiconductor device, the method comprising:
measuring minimum operating voltages of each of a plurality of sample semiconductor devices and operating frequencies of corresponding ring oscillators included in each of the plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
generating a model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of each of the corresponding plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
measuring an operating frequency of ring oscillators included in a target semiconductor device; and
determining a target minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device based on the operating frequency of the ring oscillators of the target semiconductor device and the model.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the ring oscillators comprise different ring oscillators in the sample semiconductor devices, and
wherein generating the model comprises generating a regression model between the operating frequencies of the different ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of each of the corresponding plurality of sample semiconductor devices.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein each of the sample semiconductor devices comprises a first functional block and a second functional block different from each other, and
wherein generating the model comprises:
generating a first model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and a minimum operating voltage of the first functional block of each of the sample semiconductor devices; and
generating a second model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and a minimum operating voltage of the second functional block of each of the sample semiconductor devices.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the ring oscillators include a first group in the first functional block and a second group in the second functional block, and
wherein the generating the first model comprises:
generating a regression model between the minimum operating voltage of the first functional block and the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators included in the first group and the second group.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the first model comprises different weights assigned to the operating frequencies of the first group and the second group.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the minimum operating voltage of the first functional block is different from the minimum operating voltage of the second functional block.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the generating the regression model comprises using the operating frequencies of the sample semiconductor devices.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an actual minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device by using the target minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the determining the actual minimum operating voltage comprises applying the target minimum operating voltage as an input supply voltage to the target semiconductor device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generating the model comprises:
sorting the ring oscillators into first and second groups by the operating frequency of the ring oscillators;
generating a first model between an operating frequency of the first group and the minimum operating voltage of the sample semiconductor devices; and
generating a second model between an operating frequency of the second group and the minimum operating voltage of the sample semiconductor devices.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
determining an actual minimum operating voltage by applying the target minimum operating voltage as an input supply voltage to the target semiconductor device.

12. A system for testing a semiconductor device, the system comprising:
a measuring unit configured to measure minimum operating voltages of each of a plurality of sample semiconductor devices and operating frequencies of corresponding ring oscillators included in the plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
a model generation unit configured to generate a model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of the corresponding sample semiconductor devices; and
a calculator configured to determine a target minimum operating voltage of a target semiconductor device from the model by using an operating voltage of a target semiconductor device provided from the measuring unit and the operating frequency of the ring oscillators included in the target semiconductor device.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the ring oscillators comprise different ring oscillators in the sample semiconductor devices, and
wherein the model generation unit generates a regression model between the operating frequencies of the different ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of the sample semiconductor devices.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the model generation unit generates the model between the operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the minimum operating voltages of each of the sample semiconductor devices by using the operating frequency of each of the sample semiconductor devices.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the calculator provides the determined target minimum operating voltage to the measuring unit, and
wherein the measuring unit measures an actual minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device by using the target minimum operating voltage.

16. A method of testing a semiconductor device, comprising:
measuring minimum operating voltages of each of a plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
measuring operating frequencies of corresponding ring oscillators included in each of the plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
generating a model correlating the measured operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the measured minimum operating voltages of the corresponding plurality of sample semiconductor devices;
measuring an operating frequency of ring oscillators included in a target semiconductor device;
determining, based on the model, a target minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device based on the measured operating frequency of the ring oscillators in the target semiconductor device; and
setting the determined target minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device as the minimum operating voltage of the target semiconductor device.

17. The method of claim 16 ,
wherein generating the model comprises generating a regression model correlating the measured operating frequencies of the ring oscillators and the measured minimum operating voltages of the corresponding plurality of sample semiconductor devices.

18. The method of claim 16 ,
wherein the determining the minimum operating voltage comprises applying the target minimum operating voltage as an input supply voltage to the target semiconductor device.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the generating the model comprises:
sorting the ring oscillators into first and second groups by the operating frequency of the ring oscillators;
generating a first model correlating operating frequencies of the first group and minimum operating voltages of the sample semiconductor devices; and
generating a second model correlating operating frequencies of the second group and the minimum operating voltages of the sample semiconductor devices.

20. The method of claim 19 , further comprising:
determining an actual minimum o

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kwon Oh Song

Classifications

• G01R31/3016 Primary

  Delay or race condition test, e.g. race hazard test · CPC title

• G01R31/3004

  Current or voltage test · CPC title

• G01R23/145

  by heterodyning or by beat-frequency comparison with the harmonic of an oscillator · CPC title

• G01R31/31727 Primary

  Clock circuits aspects, e.g. test clock circuit details, timing aspects for signal generation, circuits for testing clocks (G01R31/31725 takes precedence; concerning scan test G01R31/318552, for tester hardware G01R31/31922) · CPC title

• G01R31/318342

  by preliminary fault modelling, e.g. analysis, simulation · CPC title