Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Chen-Hung Lu

Yen-Sen Wang

Ming-Yi Lin

Jyh-Kang Ting

Ken-Hsien Hsieh

Ting Yu Chen

Chie-Iuan Lin

Chie-luan Lin

A semiconductor arrangement and method of formation are provided. The semiconductor arrangement includes a metal connect over and connected to a first active region, over and connected to a second active region and over a shallow trench isolation (STI) region thereby connecting the first active region to the second active region. A metal contact is over and connected to a gate in the STI region. The metal connect is formed in a first opening and the metal contact is formed in a second opening, where the first opening and the second opening are formed concurrently using a single mask. The semiconductor arrangement formed using a single mask is less expensive to fabricate and requires fewer etching operations than a semiconductor arrangement formed using multiple masks.

Semiconductor arrangement and formation thereof

Some embodiments relate to a method of designing an integrated circuit layout. In this method, a plurality of design shapes are provided on different design layers over an active area within a graphical representation of the layout. A connection extends perpendicularly between a first design shape formed on a first design layer and a second design shape formed on the first design layer. First and second cut mask shapes on first and second cut mask design layers, respectively, are generated. The first cut shape removes portions of the first design layer and the second cut shape removes portions of the second design layer.

Cut mask design layers to provide compact cell height

Some embodiments relate to a method of hierarchical layout design, comprising forming a layout of an integrated circuit (IC) according to a design rule that specifies a minimum design rule distance between a neighboring layout features within the IC. Forming the layout comprises forming first and second standard cells having first and second layout features, respectively, that about one-another so that a distance between the first and second layout features is less than the minimum design rule distance. The method further comprises configuring design rule checking (DRC) to ignore this fail. Instead, the layout is modified with an automated layout tool by merging the first and second layout features, or by removing a portion of the first or second layout feature to increase the distance between the first and second layout features to be greater than or equal to the minimum distance.

Cell boundary layout

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Hsinchu, Taiwan

Chen-Hung Lu