International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Other

Erik L Hedberg

Claude Louis Bertin

William R Tonti

Wayne John Howell

Jack Allan Mandelman

Timothy Jay Dell

Howard L Kalter

Mark William Kellogg

Russell J Houghton

John Atkinson Fifield

Jeffrey H Dreibelbis

Timothy Dooling Sullivan

Wayne Frederick Ellis

David E Douse

Steven H Voldman

Wilbur David Pricer

Jeanne P Bickford

Max Gerald Levy

Gordon A Kelley, Jr

John E Barth

Edward J Nowak

John Edward Cronin

Philip George Emma

Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan

Hillery C Hunter

Stephen Edward Greco

Peter Anthony Sandon

James Marc Leas

Michael D Armacost

Donald Lawrence Wheater

Garrett Stephen Koch

Kevin K Dezfulian

Steven William Tomashot

Endre P Thoma

John B DeForge

Steven Michael Eustis

Rick L Mohler

Arnold S Tran

Michael P Clinton

Wayne M Trickle

Susan M Litten

Toshiharu Furukawa

John J Ellis-Monaghan

Terence B Hook

Michael A Gaynes

Christopher David Muzzy

John Edward Barth, Jr

Mark Vincent Pierson

Anthony Richard Bonaccio

Richard Quimby Williams

Norman Jay Rohrer

Anilkumar Chinuprasad Bhatt

Minh H Tong

Thomas M Maffitt

Jerzy Maria Zalesinski

William E Bernier

Nancy Anne Greco

Paul Stephen McLaughlin

Paul E Bakeman, Jr

Marc Raymond Faucher

Paul A Totta

James W Dawson

Robert Dean Adams

Jean E Wynne

Roy Childs Flaker

Troy Joseph Perry

Nicholas Martin Van Heel

Henry A Bonges, Iii

Charles E Drake

John A Gabric

Nikhil Mohan Murdeshwar

Joseph J Oler, Jr

Gordon Arthur Kelley

Joseph J Van Horn

Dae-Young Jung

John G Petrovick, Jr

Aurelius L Graninger

Howard B Druckerman

Howard K Kalter

James Maro Leas

Methods and systems for multiple manufacturing line qualification are provided. A method includes establishing a product template and producing products on one or more manufacturing lines. The products include product macros placed on a chip. The method also includes establishing allowed parametric match from line to line. The method further includes determining that products from the one or more manufacturing lines meet the allowed parametric match.

Multiple manufacturing line qualification

Methods and systems for semiconductor line scribe centering are provided. A method includes placing and measuring substantially identical test macros within a chip and in a scribe line. The method also includes establishing an estimate correlation between scribe line measurements taken during a manufacturing process and product measurements taken on a final product. The method also includes determining empirical scribe line specification limits consistent with established product screen limits. The method also includes adjusting the manufacturing process in order to optimize performance to the empirical scribe line specification limits.

Systems and methods for semiconductor line scribe line centering

Approaches are provided for improving timing of new and existing semiconductor products. Specifically, a method is provided implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium having programming instructions operable to set starting across chip variation assumptions using design rules. The programming instructions are further operable to design a test chip and/or product chip using the starting across chip variation assumptions to close timing of the design. The programming instructions are further operable to place devices in the test chip and/or product chip. The programming instructions are further operable to compare performance of the devices within the test chip and/or the product chip to the starting across chip variation assumptions. The programming instructions are further operable to adjust the starting across chip variation assumptions based on the measured performance of the test chip and/or the product chip.

Semiconductor timing improvement

A hardware description language (HDL) design structure embodied on a machine-readable data storage medium includes elements that when processed in a computer aided design system generates a machine executable representation of a device for implementing dynamic refresh protocols for DRAM based cache. The HDL design structure further includes a DRAM cache partitioned into a refreshable portion and a non-refreshable portion; and a cache controller configured to assign incoming individual cache lines to one of the refreshable portion and the non-refreshable portion of the cache based on a usage history of the cache lines; wherein cache lines corresponding to data having a usage history below a defined frequency are assigned by the controller to the refreshable portion of the cache, and cache lines corresponding to data having a usage history at or above the defined frequency are assigned to the non-refreshable portion of the cache.

Structure for implementing dynamic refresh protocols for DRAM based cache

A method for implementing dynamic refresh protocols for DRAM based cache includes partitioning a DRAM cache into a refreshable portion and a non-refreshable portion, and assigning incoming individual cache lines to one of the refreshable portion and the non-refreshable portion of the cache based on a usage history of the cache lines. Cache lines corresponding to data having a usage history below a defined frequency are assigned to the refreshable portion of the cache, and cache lines corresponding to data having a usage history at or above the defined frequency are assigned to the non-refreshable portion of the cache.

Method and system for implementing dynamic refresh protocols for DRAM based cache

The present invention relates to a laser fuse structure for high power applications. Specifically, the laser fuse structure of the present invention comprises first and second conductive supporting elements (), at least one conductive fusible link (), first and second connection elements (), and first and second metal lines (). The conductive supporting elements (), the conductive fusible link (), and the metal lines () are located at a first metal level (), while the connect elements () are located at a second, different metal level () and are connected to the conductive supporting elements () and the metal lines () by conductive via stacks () that extend between the first and second metal levels ().

Laser fuse structures for high power applications

Custom connections between pairs of copper wires in a last damascene wiring level are effected by creating openings in an overlying insulating layer which span a distance between portions of the two wires, then filling the openings with aluminum. The openings can be created (or completed) by a second, maskless UV laser exposure of positive photoresist which is used for patterning the insulating layer. If an opening is not created, an aluminum connecting shape overlying the insulating layer will not effect a connection between the two wires. Similar results can be achieved by laser exposure of a resist used to pattern the aluminum layer, thereby causing breaks in connecting shape when it is desired not to have a connection.

Customizing back end of the line interconnects

Method for forming a first one time, voltage programmable logic element in a semiconductor substrate of first conductivity type, forming a first layer beneath a surface of the substrate, the first layer having a second conductivity type. A trench is formed through the surface and passing through the first layer. The trench comprises an interior surface, a dielectric material lining the interior surface and a conductive material filling the lined trench. The first logic element is configured so that a predetermined voltage or higher applied between the conductive material and the first layer causes a breakdown within a region of the trench.

Method for forming a voltage programming element

A gap conductor structure for an integrated electronic circuit that may function as an electronic fuse device or as a low capacitance inter level signal line is integrated as part of the semi-conductor chip wiring. The gap conducting structure includes one or more air gap regions of predefined volume that fully or partially exposes a length of interlevel conductor layer in an IC. Alternately, the air gap region may wholly located within the dielectric region below a corresponding conductor and separated by insulator. When functioning as a fuse, the gap region acts to reduce thermal conductivity away from the exposed portion of the conductor enabling generation of higher heat currents in the conducting line with lower applied voltages sufficient to melt a part of the conducting line. The presence of gaps, and hence, the fuses, are scalable and may be tailored to the capacity of currents they must carry with the characteristics of the fuses defined by a circuit designer. Furthermore, conducting structures completely or partially exposed in the air gap may function as low capacitance minimum delay transmission lines.

Electronic fuse structure and method of manufacturing

A burn-in process is provided for a memory array having redundant bits and addressable storage locations. The burn-in process includes the steps of raising the temperature of the memory array to a pre-determined temperature, testing all bits in the array, detecting faulty bits and operable bits, replacing faulty bits with redundant operable bits, correcting any defects in the array in-situ, and lowering the temperature of the memory array to ambient temperature to complete the burn-in process. An apparatus for carrying out the above process is provided that includes a test circuit for generating a test pattern and for applying the test pattern to the memory array so as to test all bits within the memory array. A comparison circuit, coupled to the test circuit and adapted to couple to the memory array, compares an actual response and an expected response of the memory array to the test pattern and detects faulty and operable bits based thereon. A failed address buffer register, coupled to the comparison circuit and to the test circuit, stores an address of each addressable storage location that has a faulty bit. Sparing control logic, coupled to the failed address buffer register and adapted to couple to the memory array, reads out each address stored by the failed address buffer register and replaces each faulty bit with a redundant operable bit.

Method and apparatus for semiconductor integrated circuit testing and burn-in

Electrical mask identification of memory modules

An improved chip sparing system and method of operation are provided in which a failed chip is detected even if there are multiple errors on a single chip and one or more spare chips are provided within the system; and in which spare chips or space chip I/Os are dynamically inserted into the system upon detection of a failed chip or chip I/O without the necessity of shutting down and rebooting the system or even without the necessity of re-initializing the memory.

Dynamically replacing a failed chip

A vertical Field Effect Transistor (FET) that may be an N-type FET (NFET) or a P-type FET (PFET); a multi-device vertical structure that may be two or more NFETs or two or more PFETs; logic gates including at least one vertical FET or at least one multi-device vertical; a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell and array including at least one vertical FET; a memory array including at least one such SRAM cell; and the process of forming the vertical FET structure, the vertical multi-device (multi-FET) structure, the logic gates and the SRAM cell. The vertical FETs are epitaxially grown layered stacks of NPN or PNP with the side of a polysilicon gate layer adjacent the device's channel layer. The multi-FET structure may be formed by forming sides of two or more gates adjacent to the same channel layer or, by forming multiple channel layers in the same stack, e.g., PNPNP or NPNPN, each with its own gate, i.e., the side of a polysilicon gate layer. The SRAM cell may be radiation hardened by selectively thickening gate layers to increase storage node capacitance, providing high resistance cell wiring or by including a multi-layered gate oxide layer of NO or ONO, or by any combination thereof.

High performance, low power vertical integrated CMOS devices

A pair of directly coupled Field Effect transistors (FETs), a latch of directly coupled FETs, a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell including a latch of directly coupled FETs and the process of forming the directly coupled FET structure, latch and SRAM cell. The vertical FETs, which may be both PFETs, NFETs or one of each, are epi-grown NPN or PNP stacks separated by a gate oxide, SiO . Each device's gate is the source or drain of the other device of the pair. The preferred embodiment latch includes two such pairs of directly coupled vertical FETs connected together to form cross coupled invertors. A pass gate layer is bonded to one surface of a layer of preferred embodiment latches to form an array of preferred embodiment SRAM cells. The SRAM cell may include one or two pass gates. The preferred embodiment SRAM process has three major steps. First, preferred embodiment latches are formed in an oxide layer on a silicon wafer. Second, the cell pass gates are formed on a pass gate or Input/Output (I/O) layer. Third, the I/O layer is bonded to and connected to the preferred latch layer.

High performance direct coupled FET memory cell

Wafer test and burn-in is accomplished with state machine or programmable test engines located on the wafer being tested. Each test engine requires less than 10 connections and each test engine can be connected to a plurality of chips, such as a row or a column of chips on the wafer. Thus, the number of pads of the wafer that must be connected for test is substantially reduced while a large degree of parallel testing is still provided. The test engines also permit on-wafer allocation of redundancy in parallel so that failing chips can be repaired after burn-in is complete. In addition, the programmable test engines can have their code altered so test programs can be modified to account for new information after the wafer has been fabricated. The test engines are used during burn-in to provide high frequency write signals to DRAM arrays that provide a higher effective voltage to the arrays, lowering the time required for burn-in. Connections to the wafer and between test engines and chips are provided along a membrane attached to the wafer. Membrane connectors can be formed or opened after the membrane is connected to the wafer so shorted chips can be disconnected. Preferably the membrane remains on the wafer after test, burn-in and dicing to provide a chip scale package. Thus, the very high cost of TCE matched materials, such as glass ceramic contactors, for wafer burn-in is avoided while providing benefit beyond test and burn-in for packaging.

Structures for wafer level test and burn-in

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Essex Junction, VT, United States of America

Erik L Hedberg