Bae Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Loral Federal Systems Company

Jai P Bansal

Claude Louis Bertin

Ronald R Troutman

A multi-function programmable transceiver is described. The transceiver includes a driver circuit and a receiver circuit, which allows an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) device to drive and receive data from other ASIC devices. Both the driver and receiver circuits share a common input/output (I/O) pin. The driver circuit can be programmed to provide one of the several driver functions, such as CMOS, TTL, PCI, HSTL, SSTL and LVDS. Other functional features of the transceiver that can be programmed are driving strengths or output impedance, output power supply voltage, single ended or differential mode of HSTL/SSTL transceivers, and class 1 or class 2 operations for SSTL/HSTL transceivers. The receiver circuit can also be programmed to provide one of the several receiver functions, such as CMOS, TTL, PCI, HSTL, SSTL and LVDS.

Programmable transceiver circuit

A multi-function core base cell includes a set of functional microcircuits. These microcircuits are used to design a Library of Logic Function Macros. The functional macros consisting of one or more microcircuits have a fixed and complete physical layout similar to a conventional standard cell library macro set. In addition to a core functional macro set, primary input/output buffers and commonly used single and dual port memory blocks are also defined in the library. The library includes all the ASIC synthesis, simulation, and physical design rules.

Method for designing structured ASICs in silicon processes with three unique masking steps

Method for designing structured ASICS in silicon processes with three unique masking steps

An off chip driver circuit includes a pre-driver circuit and a driver circuit. Driver data and enable inputs are decoded in the pre-driver circuit to provide independent inputs to pull up and pull down transistors in the driver circuit. The enable input keeps the driver circuit in the active or high impedance modes. A feedback signal generated by the driver output and the driver enable signals controls an inverter circuit within the driver circuit to provide proper biasing conditions at the gate of the pull up transistor. This feed back provides fast switching times for the driver circuit and prevents gate oxide of all the transistors from being overstressed by the external high voltage signal.

High voltage tolerant off chip driver circuit

A method for designing a cell-based ASIC device with multiple power supply voltages is disclosed. An ASIC chip image is made without applying power or ground buses to metal layer M. All fast or high-power circuits are grouped together into high-power logic blocks and synthesized with high-power circuit macro libraries. All slow or low-power circuits are grouped together into low-power logic blocks and synthesized with low power circuit macro libraries. The associate power and ground buses are applied to metal layer Min each of the logic blocks. The logic blocks are placed on the ASIC so that different voltage groups are separated by at least one cell. The ASIC is then routed and tested before the mask is released.

Method for providing a cell-based ASIC device with multiple power supply voltages

A very efficient gate array core cell in which the base core cell consists of a group of 6 PMOS transistors and a group of 6 NMOS transistors. It also includes pre-wiring of 2 of the 6 PMOS transistors, with 2 of the 6 NMOS transistors at polysilicon level or at local interconnect level while leaving the remaining PMOS and NMOS transistors as individual transistors to be interconnected during the functional ASIC metallization process. The core cell also has 2 polysilicon or local interconnect wires embedded in it, which can be used to interconnect transistors for logic function implementation. The core cell defined in this invention is highly flexible and has been analyzed to interconnect all types of logic and memory functions needed for ASIC designs. The layout of the transistors, pre-wiring of the strategic transistors at polysilicon level or at local interconnect level, and embedded polysilicon or local interconnect wires reduce the core cell size significantly. This core cell design reduces the overall wiring lengths, parasitic capacitance, which in turn reduce delays, power dissipation and increase ASIC performance and circuit density. Gate array ASIC components designed using this core cell provide circuit density, performance and power dissipation characteristics comparable to the Standard Cell ASICs but with the advantage of reducing the mask cost and processing time by about 50 percent.

Gate array core cell for VLSI ASIC devices

A method of making gate array ASIC components from a master slice wafer having a first conducting layer containing logic elements, a second conducting layer containing first electrically conducting elements extending in a first direction, and a third conducting layer comprises interconnecting at least some of the logic elements to one another with a single masking process step by defining, on the third conducting layer, second conducting elements connected to the first electrically conducting elements to define connections between the logic elements.

Process to personalize master slice wafers and fabricate high density

SEU immunity is provided in a cross-coupled CMOS latch circuit by inserting a pair of series connected invertors between the drain node of one CMOS invertor and the gate node of the other CMOS invertor and a pair of series connected invertors between the drain node of the other CMOS invertor and the gate node of the one CMOS invertor. The invertor pairs delay the propagation of a change in voltage induced by an energetic ion strike at the off drain of one invertor to the gates of the transistors making up the other cross coupled invertor. The invertor connected to the gates of the transistors affected by the ion strike help in restoring the circuit to its original state.

Single event upset hardened CMOS latch circuit

A method is disclosed for fabricating series and/or parallel connected P channel and N channel FET device topologically connected in a CMOS configuration, where the individual FET devices share a common gate sandwiched between them, forming a five terminal device. A new device structure and complementary MOSFET circuitry is also disclosed. The disclosed process produces devices and circuits which overcome the main disadvantage of prior art CMOS transistors, namely excessive area consumption and parasitic effects.

Structure of stacked, complementary MOS field effect transistor circuits

Process for fabrication of stacked, complementary MOS field effect

An asymmetric RAM cell is disclosed which will have a predictable initial storage state when pulsed drain voltage is turned on and yet after the initial turn-on interval, will operate in a symmetric fashion storing either binary ones or zeros. Thus, an initial prestored set of information can be permanently provided in a memory array made up of such cells, by orienting each individual cell at the time of manufacture so as to selectively represent either a binary one or zero. This is illustrated in the FIGURE where the upper cell has a first state by virtue of its orientation and the lower cell has a second, opposite state by virtue of its relative opposite orientation. When the array is turned on, the upper cell will have the opposite binary state from the lower cell. Thereafter, each cell can be respectively switched for storing ones and zeros in a normal RAM operating mode.

Growing community of inventors

Manassas, VA, United States of America

Jai P Bansal