Method for inspecting semiconductor devices
First Claim
1. A method for inspecting a semiconductor device having at least one functional cell including a plurality of internal elements, said method comprising the steps of:
- applying patterns from a static current inspecting pattern group to the semiconductor device, so as to control and turn each of said internal elements into an observable state in which a static current flows in said functional cell in response to at least one fault in said functional cell, said static current inspecting pattern group including patterns suitable for measuring static current;
measuring static current after applying said patterns; and
comparing said measured static current with a predetermined value to determine whether the semiconductor device is defective.
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Abstract
A method for detecting the quality of a semiconductor device using a static current that flows in a state wherein internal elements are fixed, the semiconductor device has internal elements, such as MISFETs and complementary MISFETs in particular. By using a pattern group that controls the state of nodes of the internal elements or ON/OFF and other states of MISFETs that comprise the internal elements, as a test pattern group used for this inspection, faults involving long range reliability in addition to degenerate faults and those faults detected using conventional fault simulation may be detected. In the inspection method based on static current, observability of faults at output terminals need not be taken into consideration, so that the number of patterns in the test pattern group used for inspection may be less and may be easily created.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for inspecting a semiconductor device having at least one functional cell including a plurality of internal elements, said method comprising the steps of:
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applying patterns from a static current inspecting pattern group to the semiconductor device, so as to control and turn each of said internal elements into an observable state in which a static current flows in said functional cell in response to at least one fault in said functional cell, said static current inspecting pattern group including patterns suitable for measuring static current; measuring static current after applying said patterns; and comparing said measured static current with a predetermined value to determine whether the semiconductor device is defective. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification