公开(公告)号：US11131711B1

公开(公告)日：2021-09-28

申请号：US16936264

申请日：2020-07-22

Applicant: NVIDIA Corporation

Inventor： Krishnamraju Kurra ,  Gunaseelan Ponnuvel ,  Divyesh Shah ,  Abhishek Akkur ,  Kartik Joshi ,  Tezaswi Raja ,  Andy Chamas

IPC: G01R31/00 ,  G01R31/317 ,  H01L27/02 ,  G01R31/3177 ,  H01L23/58

Abstract: In-chip decoupling capacitor circuits refer to decoupling capacitors (DCAPs) that are placed on a chip. These DCAPs are generally used to manage power supply noise for the chip, and can be utilized individually or as a distributed system. In some cases, DCAPs may make up a significant portion of the chip. Unfortunately, defects in DCAPs will degrade over time, will encroach into active logic, and will further cause automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) failure. To date, there has been a lack of structural test coverage for DCAP circuits, which reduces test coverage of the chip as a whole. To this end, defects on the chip as they relate to DCAPs (i.e. shorts in the DCAP) may not be detected. The present disclosure provides a structural test system and method for DCAPs and other passive logic components located on-chip.

公开(公告)号：US20240255551A1

公开(公告)日：2024-08-01

申请号：US18162040

申请日：2023-01-31

Applicant: NVIDIA Corporation

Inventor： Abhishek Akkur ,  Tezaswi Raja

IPC: G01R19/165 ,  G01R19/17 ,  H02H3/20

CPC classification number: G01R19/1659 ,  G01R19/17 ,  H02H3/20

Abstract: The disclosure provides a voltage detecting circuit that detects voltage increases and voltage decreases using a diode drop and voltage thresholds. The voltage detecting circuit, referred to as a voltage variation detector, uses the diode to maintain a differential between the voltage being monitored and a voltage threshold. When the diode is reversed bias, the voltage variation detector generates a detecting signal indicating the monitored voltage crossed the voltage threshold. In one example a voltage variation detector is disclosed that includes: (1) a transistor stack that corresponds to a voltage threshold, (2) a transistor diode, and (3) an inverter that receives an input signal and provides an detection signal that controls one or more gates of the transistor stack, wherein the transistor stack and the transistor diode provide the input signal and the detection signal indicates when the voltage crosses the voltage threshold.