DETERMINING THERMAL ABSORPTION USING RING OSCILLATOR

摘要

A device and method for determining a thermal absorption of a part of an integrated circuit (IC) are provided. A specially designed ring oscillator including an un-silicided poly-silicon resistor is used for the determination. The parameters of the ring oscillator are designed/tuned so that a delay of the ring oscillator varies predominantly with a variation in a resistance of the un-silicided poly-silicon resistor. The dimensions of the un-silicided poly-silicon resistor are large enough so that the resistance of the un-silicided poly-silicon resistor is immune to the small process variations of the poly-silicon length and width. The resistance of the un-silicided poly-silicon resistor varies with the thermal absorption of the part of the IC. As such, the thermal absorption of the part of the IC may be determined based on the delay of the ring oscillator.