Patents by Inventor Fremont S. Smith

Fremont S. Smith has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6754861
    Abstract: Signal alignment circuitry aligns (i.e., deskews) test signals from a massively parallel tester. A timing portion of each signal is received by a rising edge delay element, a falling edge delay element, and a transition detector, all in parallel. The delay of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements is independently controlled by control circuitry. The outputs of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements are muxed together, and the output of the mux is selected in response to rising edge and falling edge transitions detected by the transition detector. The output of the mux is provided to pulse generating circuitry, which generates a pulse at each edge for use in clocking a data portion of each signal into a DQ flip-flop. The output of this DQ flip-flop is then latched in to another DQ flip-flop by a reference clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: David A. Reichle, Charles K. Snodgrass, Charles S. Alexander, Fremont S. Smith
  • Publication number: 20020152437
    Abstract: Signal alignment circuitry aligns (i.e., deskews) test signals from a massively parallel tester. A timing portion of each signal is received by a rising edge delay element, a falling edge delay element, and a transition detector, all in parallel. The delay of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements is independently controlled by control circuitry. The outputs of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements are muxed together, and the output of the mux is selected in response to rising edge and falling edge transitions detected by the transition detector. The output of the mux is provided to pulse generating circuitry, which generates a pulse at each edge for use in clocking a data portion of each signal into a DQ flip-flop. The output of this DQ flip-flop is then latched in to another DQ flip-flop by a reference clock.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2002
    Publication date: October 17, 2002
    Inventors: David A. Reichle, Charles K. Snodgrass, Charles S. Alexander, Fremont S. Smith
  • Patent number: 6430725
    Abstract: Signal alignment circuitry aligns (i e., deskews) test signals from a massively parallel tester. A timing portion of each signal is received by a rising edge delay element, a falling edge delay element, and a transition detector, all in parallel. The delay of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements is independently controlled by control circuitry. The outputs of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements are muxed together, and the output of the mux is selected in response to rising edge and falling edge transitions detected by the transition detector. The output of the mux is provided to pulse generating circuitry, which generates a pulse at each edge for use in clocking a data portion of each signal into a DQ flip-flop. The output of this DQ flip-flop is then latched in to another DQ flip-flop by a reference clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2002
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: David A. Reichle, Charles K. Snodgrass, Charles S. Alexander, Fremont S. Smith
  • Patent number: 6158030
    Abstract: Signal alignment circuitry aligns (i.e., deskews) test signals from a massively parallel tester. A timing portion of each signal is received by a rising edge delay element, a falling edge delay element, and a transition detector, all in parallel. The delay of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements is independently controlled by control circuitry. The outputs of the rising edge and falling edge delay elements are muxed together, and the output of the flux is selected in response to rising edge and falling edge transitions detected by the transition detector. The output of the mux is provided to pulse generating circuitry, which generates a pulse at each edge for use in clocking a data portion of each signal into a DQ flip-flop. The output of this DQ flip-flop is then latched in to another DQ flip-flop by a reference clock.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 21, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2000
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: David A. Reichle, Charles K. Snodgrass, Charles S. Alexander, Fremont S. Smith