Patent ID: 7506193

Claim:
A system for compensating for signal skew in a substrate mounted circuit, comprising: a programmable delay buffer; and a computer in communication with the programmable delay buffer, the programmable delay buffer receiving a component signal from a first component, the component signal having skew; wherein the programmable delay buffer applies a first delay to the component signal resulting in a first delayed signal; wherein the computer determines if the first delay compensates for the skew in the component signal by comparing the first delayed signal with a reference signal after the component signal is first received by the system; wherein after the computer determines if the first delay compensates for the skew, the programmable delay buffer applies a second delay to the first delayed signal, resulting in a second delayed signal; wherein after the programmable delay buffer applies the second delay, the computer indicates to the programmable delay buffer that the second delay compensates for the skew in the signal; wherein the computer saves the first delay and the second delay to a pass list; wherein the computer determines from the pass list at least two delay values that compensated for the skew in the signal; wherein the computer determines a mid-point of the at least two delay values; and, wherein the computer uses the mid-point to delay the signal; wherein the programmable delay buffer is programmed prior to the use of the substrate mounted circuit.