Apparatus and method for controlling experimental inventory

An integrated circuit, apparatus, and a method is provided for programming and reading manufacturing information upon non-volatile storage elements of the integrated circuit. The manufacturing information includes the particular processing recipe and layout of the integrated circuit, each recipe or...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author JACOBS; MARC A
Format Patent
LanguageEnglish
Published 18.04.2000
Edition7
Subjects
CALCULATING
COMPUTING
COUNTING
ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
PHYSICS
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Summary:An integrated circuit, apparatus, and a method is provided for programming and reading manufacturing information upon non-volatile storage elements of the integrated circuit. The manufacturing information includes the particular processing recipe and layout of the integrated circuit, each recipe or layout indicative of a specific hardware revision. The storage elements may be programmed prior to assembling the integrated circuit within a semiconductor package, and the programmed elements are read prior to shipping the packaged integrated circuit to a customer. If the read hardware revision is not qualified for release, the product will be placed in a staging area and prevented from shipping to a customer or end user. Thus, the programmed hardware revision serves to gate product at test before shipping that product to a customer. The manufacturing information is programmed by the manufacturer and is inaccessible by a customer since the address space which contains product engineering bits is known only to the manufacturer.
Bibliography:Application Number: US19970984722