SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE

摘要

The disclosed invention provides a semiconductor device that enables early discovery of a sign of aged deterioration that occurs locally. An LSI has a plurality of modules and a delay monitor cluster including a plurality of delay monitors. Each delay monitor inducts a ring oscillator having a plurality of gate elements. Each delay monitor measures a delay time of the gate elements. A CPU #0 determines if a module proximate to a delay monitor suffers from aged deterioration, based on the delay time measured by the delay monitor.

主权项

1. A semiconductor device comprising:
a plurality of modules; a plurality of delay monitors, wherein each delay monitor includes a ring oscillator having a plurality of gate elements and measures a delay time of said gate elements, and a control unit that whether or not the delay time measured by said delay monitor exceeds a predetermined reference value, wherein, of said delay monitors, every two delay monitors disposed near to each other form one pair, wherein a ring oscillator in one delay monitor of said pair continues to oscillate except for a predetermined number of cycles before and after a delay time measurement period and a ring oscillator in the other delay monitor of said pair oscillates only during a delay time measurement period, and said control unit determines a difference between a delay time measured by said one delay monitor and a delay time measured by said other delay monitor.