公开(公告)号：US09672310B1

公开(公告)日：2017-06-06

申请号：US14795013

申请日：2015-07-09

Applicant: Apple Inc.

Inventor： Antonietta Oliva ,  John G. Dorsey ,  Keith Cox ,  Norman J. Rohrer ,  Sribalan Santhanam ,  Sung Wook Kang ,  Mohamed H. Abu-Rama ,  Ashish R. Jain

IPC: G06F17/00 ,  G06F17/50 ,  G01R31/28

CPC classification number: G01R31/2894 ,  G01R31/2856 ,  G01R31/2875 ,  G01R31/2879

Abstract: In an embodiment, the amount of supply voltage guardband to prevent incorrect operation due to aging effects may be modeled using an IC-specific age model generated early in the product life cycle of the IC. For example, high temperature operating life (HTOL) testing may be performed at multiple temperatures and/or voltages to develop the IC-specific age model. The IC-specific age model may be more accurate then the calculations used to develop guardband voltage as discussed previously, which rely on the aging of a single transistor. The IC-specific age model may be used along with monitoring of the aging effects during operation of the IC to predict an amount of increased guardband voltage that is currently desirable to apply to the IC. The predicted amount may vary from about zero when the IC is new to the full amount of guardband voltage when the IC is nearing end of life.