International Business Machines Corporation

Eugene Shapiro

Se June Hong

Ravindra K Nair

Brent Tzion Hailpern

Michael R Scheuermann

Jean-Marc Halbout

George J Fan

Lee W Hoevel

Herbert P Byrnes

A thin interface pellicle probe for making temporary or permanent interconnections to pads or bumps on a semiconductor device wherein the pads or bumps may be arranged in high density patterns is described incorporating an electrode for each pad or bump wherein the electrode has a raised portion thereon for penetrating the surface of the pad or bump to create sidewalls to provide a clean contact surface and the electrode has a recessed surface to limit the penetration of the raised portion. The electrodes may be affixed to a thin flexible membrane to permit each contact to have independent movement over a limited distance and of a limited rotation. The invention overcomes the problem of making easily breakable electrical interconnections to high density arrays of pads or bumps on integrated circuit structures for testing, burn-in or package interconnect and testing applications.

Thin interface pellicle for dense arrays of electrical interconnects

In a data processing system including a relatively large, page-formatted memory, memory control functions are distributed over a plurality of microprocessors connected in an array with each microprocessor controlling a respective area of the large memory. Upon overflow of its assigned memory area, a microprocessor may 'borrow' free memory space assigned to one of its neighbors in the microprocessor array. Memory control functions with respect to different areas in the memory can effectively be performed in parallel, thus improving the operating efficiency.

Multi-microprocessor for controlling shared memory

Method and apparatus for the physical design of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, and in particular the interconnection and wire routing between circuits formed on a chip. Apparatus is set forth for determining the wire routings in a VLSI circuit comprised of cells, wherein the cells are composed of electronic devices functioning as logic gates. Groups of cells may be interconnected to function as flip flops, shift registers and the like. A supervisory controller communicates with n, where n is an integer, identical multi-port processors, with one processor dedicated to each cell, for determining the wire routings between the respective cells. Each processor communicates simultaneously with its four adjacent neighbor processors to determine channel routings from one point to the next in the array of cells, wherein a channel routing includes vertical and horizontal paths. Following determination of global channel routings, exact vertical and horizontal tracks for the wire paths are assigned. The array of processors may be utilized to wire a much larger array of cells.

High speed machine for the physical design of very large scale

Method and apparatus for the physical design of very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits, and in particular the interconnection and wire routing between circuits formed on a chip. Apparatus is set forth for determining the wire routings in a VLSI circuit comprised of cells, wherein the cells are composed of electronic devices functioning as logic gates. Groups of cells may be interconnected to function as flip flops, shift registers and the like. A supervisory controller communicates with n, where n is an integer, identical multi-port processors, with one processor dedicated to each cell, for determining the wire routings between the respective cells. Each processor communicates simultaneously with its four adjacent neighbor processors to determine channel routings from one point to the next in the array of cells, wherein a channel routing includes vertical and horizontal paths. Following determination of global channel routings, exact vertical and horizontal tracks for the wire paths are assigned. The array or processors may be utilized to wire a much larger array of cells.

A scanner transfers information in the form of magnetic characters to a soft magnetic film, and subsequently transfers the information to a storage medium, such as disc, tape, or the like. Use of amorphous and other bubble material is suggested. A bias field is coupled through the magnetic characters to the material in which bubbles are generated and transported.

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Stamford, CT, United States of America

Eugene Shapiro