Victor Zieren

Transient current testing of 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS devices

Transient current testing (I/sub DDT/) has been often cited as an alternative and/or supplement to I/sub DDQ/ testing. The effectiveness of our I/sub DDT/ test method is compared with I/sub DDQ/ as well as with SA-based voltage testing for devices produced in 0.25 /spl mu/m technology. For these devices a large vector-to-vector spread in I/sub DDT/ is observed. This spread is investigated together with the die-to-die spread to determine a pass/fail criterion. The vector-to-vector spread is compensated by comparing the measured I/sub DDT/ values with those of a known good (golden) device. A hardware solution for an I/sub DDT/ monitor is presented which includes a correction for the golden device signature. Therefore real-time I/sub DDT/ testing on a digital tester without data-processing becomes feasible.

Design and fabrication of thin film heads for the digital compact cassette audio system

The digital compact cassette (DCC) system requires a multitrack recording head which can handle the digital multitrack format but can also playback standard analog compact cassette tapes. The layout and design of a recently developed thin film DCC head are discussed. An analysis of design parameters is presented, which shows why a small throat height of only 3 mu m has been chosen. In order to insure sufficient lifetime of the head, a CrN coating on the tape bearing surface is applied. >

Ultrathin wear-resistant coatings for the tape bearing surface of thin-film magnetic heads for digital compact cassette

The introduction of the digital compact cassette system into the consumer market imposed some severe requirements on the durability of the thin-film heads used in this system. The reliability of the heads record and playback functions has to be maintained under a wide variety of climatic conditions and tape types, as a consequence of the systems backward compatibility with the analog compact cassette. This paper describes the results of several accelerated wear tests as well as of durability tests against tape, which were setup to find the best material and process conditions for a wear-resistant coating on the tape bearing surface of a DCC head. This ultrathin coating ( >