Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Ring oscillator structures to determine local voltage value
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Application No.: US15445587Application Date: 2017-02-28
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Publication No.: US10574240B2Publication Date: 2020-02-25
- Inventor: Keith A. Jenkins , Peilin Song , James H. Stathis , Franco Stellari
- Applicant: International Business Machines Corporation
- Applicant Address: US NY Armonk
- Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
- Current Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
- Current Assignee Address: US NY Armonk
- Agency: Intelletek Law Group, PLLC
- Agent Gabriel Daniel, Esq.
- Main IPC: H03L1/00
- IPC: H03L1/00 ; H03K3/03 ; H03B5/12 ; H04L9/32 ; H03B5/30 ; H03B5/36 ; H03B1/00 ; G01R31/28

Abstract:
An electronic apparatus for testing an integrated circuit (IC) that includes a ring oscillator is provided. The apparatus configures the ring oscillator to produce oscillation at a first frequency and configures the ring oscillator to produce oscillation at a second frequency. The apparatus then compares the second frequency with an integer multiple of the first frequency to determine a resistive voltage drop between a voltage applied to the IC and a local voltage at the ring oscillator. The ring oscillator has a chain of inverting elements forming a long ring and a short ring. The ring oscillator also has an oscillation selection circuit that is configured to disable the short ring so that the ring oscillator produces a fundamental oscillation based on signal propagation through the long ring and enable the short ring so that the ring oscillator produces a harmonic oscillation based on a signal propagation through the short ring and the long ring.
Public/Granted literature
- US20180248555A1 RING OSCILLATOR STRUCTURES TO DETERMINE LOCAL VOLTAGE VALUE Public/Granted day:2018-08-30
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