Patent · US Expired

Method for capturing digital data in an automatic test system

US5938780A · kind A · utility

13Cited by
3References
18Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateSep 19, 1997
Grant dateAug 17, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateSep 19, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01R31/31937
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method for operating automatic test equipment for capturing digital data produced by a semiconductor device under test, whereby the digital data is repetitively sampled to produce a series of sampled data pairs. The digital data and the sampling frequency can be non-coherent. As a result, the digital data can be sampled early relative to some bits and late relative to other bits. The sampled data pairs that are captured while these shifts take place, from early-to-late sampling or from late-to-early sampling, are then assigned to respective groups. A minimum number of bit patterns, corresponding to the sampled digital data, is then derived from contiguous groups of sampled data pairs, and compared with expected bit patterns. The method is especially useful for capturing digital data with drifting frequency.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.