Patent ID: 6101458
Filing Date: 2000-08-08
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
A method of measuring DC current drawn by an integrated circuit, the method comprising:coupling the integrated circuit to a computer-based test apparatus which has a plurality of current measurement ranges;maintaining a software look-up table in a memory which includes an entry indicating a maximum current value for each of the plurality of measurement ranges;initializing the computer-based test apparatus to a selected measurement range in the plurality of measurement ranges;measuring the DC current drawn by the integrated circuit with the computer-based test apparatus in the selected measurement range;comparing the measured DC current to the maximum current value entry in the look-up table for the selected measurement range;incrementing the selected measurement range if the measured DC current is out of the selected measurement range, based on the comparison; andrepeating the steps of measuring and incrementing until the measured DC current is in the selected measurement range.