Altera Corporation

Jeffrey Tyhach

Chiakang Sung

Bonnie I Wang

Khai Nguyen

Christopher F Lane

Arifur Rahman

Yan Chong

Xiaobao Wang

Cheng-Hsiung Huang

Tzung-Chin Chang

Henry Kim

Gopinath Rangan

Chih-Ching Shih

Ali H Burney

Giles V Powell

Stephanie T Tran

Sanjay K Charagulla

Guu Lin

Karthik Chandrasekar

An integrated circuit is disclosed. The integrated circuit may include an interface circuit region and logic circuitry region. The interface circuit region includes interface circuits that transfers signals in and out of the integrated circuit. The logic circuitry region includes logic circuitry that is configured to implement a logic function. The logic circuitry region surrounds the interface circuit region from at least two sides, from at least three sides, or from all four sides.

Integrated circuit floorplans

A multi-chip package that includes multiple integrated circuits is provided. An integrated circuit in the multi-chip package may be mounted on an interposer. The interposer may be mounted on a package substrate. The integrated circuit may have internal power supply terminals coupled to on-package decoupling (OPD) capacitor circuitry that are formed as part of the package substrate. The power supply terminals on the integrated circuit may be coupled to conductive routing paths and through-silicon vias (TSVs) in the interposer via microbumps. The through-silicon vias in the interposer may be coupled to the OPD capacitor circuitry via flip-chip bumps. The conductive routing paths and the TSVs in the interposer may be coupled to the internal integrated circuit power supply terminals in a way that minimizes power supply resonance noise.

Multi-chip packages with reduced power distribution network noise

A programmable device I/O architecture allows for a variable number of I/O banks. Each I/O bank is of an I/O bank type. Each I/O bank type has a fixed number of I/O pins. I/O banks of the same I/O bank type are compatible within the same programmable device and between different types of programmable devices. The largest size I/O bank type and intermediate size I/O bank types are adapted to be a compatible supersets of every smaller I/O bank type. Support pins are regularly distributed between data pins in each I/O bank type. Multiple instances of the same or compatible I/O banks are arranged to be accessible from different sides of the programmable device. To facilitate circuit board layout, each I/O bank is arranged as a mirror and/or rotation of other I/O banks on the device.

Modular I/O bank architecture

Improved decoupling capacitor designs and layout schemes are provided that generate high effective capacitance and high area efficiency at higher frequencies than that of previously known decoupling capacitor designs. The improved decoupling capacitor designs utilize transistor gates with shorter channel lengths to reduce the total parasitic resistance of the channel, thereby providing higher effective capacitance at higher frequencies. To enable higher area efficiency of this decoupling capacitor design, excess contacts are replaced with polysilicon in a grid or waffle pattern.

Apparatus and methods for providing highly effective and area efficient decoupling capacitance in programmable logic devices

Circuits are described that provide electrostatic discharge protection for I/O circuits that support the low voltage differential signaling (LVDS) and on-chip termination (OCT) standards. At least one additional transistor is connected across an I/O transistor. In the case of LVDS, a pair of stacked transistors is used in which the distance between the source/drain region and a well tap is considerably greater for the transistor connected to the I/O pad. A PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor may also be connected in series between a first node such as a power supply node and the I/O pad. An OCT circuit is also disclosed in which the spacing between the source/drain region and a well tap in the OCT transistor is smaller than that in the I/O transistor.

ESD protection that supports LVDS and OCT

Techniques are provided for controlling an on-chip termination resistance in an input or output (IO) buffer using a calibration circuit. The calibration circuit monitors the voltage between an external resistor and a group of on-chip transistors. When voltage between the external resistor and the group of transistors is within a selected range, the calibration circuit causes the effective resistance of the transistors to match the resistance of the external resistor as closely as possible. The calibration circuit enables another set of transistors in the IO buffer so that the effective on resistance of the transistors in the IO buffer closely match the resistance of the external resistor.

Techniques for controlling on-chip termination resistance using voltage range detection

Input buffer circuitry for handling high-speed differential input signals on an integrated circuit is provided. The input buffer circuitry may use two parallel differential input buffers with overlapping input-voltage ranges. Logic on the integrated circuit may be powered at a core-logic power supply voltage. Input-output circuitry on the integrated circuit may be powered at an input-output voltage level. To improve the performance of the input buffers in the overlap range, at least one the input buffers can be powered using a total power supply voltage drop that exceeds the core-logic power supply level. One of the input buffers may be configured to handle lower-voltage input signals. This input buffer may be powered using the input-output power supply level.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Jeffrey Tyhach