International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

Jeffrey H Sloan

Douglas Willard Stout

Steven H Voldman

James P Pequignot

Tariq Rahman

Brian D Jones

Xiaopeng Wang

Timothy Dooling Sullivan

Robert Russell Robison

David L Harmon

Kimball M Watson

Joseph M Lukaitis

Francis H Chan

Dustin Kenneth Slisher

Stewart E Rauch, Iii

Aspects of the invention provide for compensating impedance calibration circuits. In one embodiment, a compensated impedance calibration circuit, includes: a variable resistor network including a tunable resistor and a fixed resistor; and an external resistance network including a target external precision resistor and a parasitic distribution resistance; wherein a resistance of the variable resistor network is proportional to a resistance of the external resistance network, such that a ratio of an output voltage of the variable resistor network to a power supply voltage is constant.

Compensated impedance calibration circuit

A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes: forming a resistor over a substrate; forming at least one first contact in contact with the resistor; and forming at least one second contact in contact with the resistor. The resistor is structured and arranged such that current flows from the at least one first contact to the at least one second contact through a central portion of the resistor. The resistor includes at least one extension extending laterally outward from the central portion in a direction parallel to the current flow. The method includes sizing the at least one extension based on a thermal diffusion length of the resistor.

Thin film resistors and methods of manufacture

An electrostatic discharge protection network that uses triple well semiconductor devices either singularly or in a series configuration. The semiconductor devices are preferably in diode junction type configuration.

Electrostatic discharge protection networks for triple well semiconductor devices

An electrostatic discharge protection network that uses triple well semiconductor devices either singularly or in a series configuration. The semiconductor devices are preferably in diode junction type configuration. A control network can be used to control the biasing when the semiconductor devices are used in a series configuration.

The invention comprises an input/output circuit of an integrated circuit chip that includes a pad, a protection circuit connected to the pad, and an up-shift circuit connected to the pad and the protection circuit. The up-shift circuit provides a DC bias voltage to signals received by the pad to protect the protection circuit. With the invention, the protection circuit includes only single gate-oxide devices.

Input/output circuit having up-shifting circuitry for accommodating different voltage signals

ASIC book to provide ESD protection on an integrated circuit

A method for automatically generating a custom ESD network for an integrated circuit is provided. When a user provides chip size and chip capacitance for the integrated circuit, components for the customized ESD network are automatically selected based on the user-provided chip size and chip capacitance and the adequacy of the ESD behavior of an ESD network employing the selected components is evaluated.

Method for providing ESD protection for an integrated circuit

A novel ESD protection circuit for multiple power supplies, having both inventive inter-rail ESD circuitry and inventive single-rail ESD circuitry. The inter-rail ESD circuitry is scaleable and comprises one or more diode strings for interconnecting a pair of power rails. The ESD trigger voltage for a diode string is set by the number of diodes within the diode string and preferably a sufficient number of diodes are provided within each diode string for power-up and power-down sequence independence. The single-rail ESD circuitry is connected to a level-shifter and may comprise an RC discriminator comprising two NFET transistors connected in series. The RC discriminator may be connected to a clamping transistor via a buffering circuit, such as an inverter stage, that isolates the gate capacitance of the clamping transistor from the RC discriminator so that the RC characteristics of the RC discriminator are unaffected by the choice of the clamping transistor. The ESD protection circuit may be constructed from a selection from user-selectable discrete circuit elements formed on the chip.

Method and apparatus for providing ESD protection

A dual stage voltage level predrive circuit for an integrated circuit chip including two level shifter stages in series. The voltage level shifting circuit uses single dielectric layer devices and three bias supply circuits each providing a different DC bias voltage for distributing bias voltages among the devices such that dielectric voltage stress across single dielectric layers is reduced. The first stage of the level shifting circuit receives a first input signal having a first voltage swing, converts the first voltage swing to a second voltage swing and provides a first output signal corresponding to the first input signal and having the second voltage swing. The second stage of the level shifting circuit receives the first output signal from the first stage, converts the second voltage swing to a third voltage swing and provides a final output signal having the third voltage swing.

Growing community of inventors

Richmond, VT, United States of America

Jeffrey H Sloan