Sige Semiconductor, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Globalfoundries Inc.

John D Gillis

Michael Joseph McPartlin

Mark M Doherty

David R Helms

Phillip Antognetti

Anthony K Stamper

Mete Erturk

Casey Jon Grant

David Scagnelli

Wan Ni

Embodiments are provided that include methods of designing an inductor. The inductor can include a conductive line including at least one turn and an opening positioned within an interior of a region of the conductive line. Embodiments of forming the inductor can include: providing an inductor design including a conductive line having at least one turn; determining a region of the conductive line that has current density below a threshold; and forming an opening in the region, the opening enclosed within the conductive line.

Methods of designing an inductor having opening enclosed within conductive line

Embodiments of an inductor including a conductive line including at least one turn and an opening positioned within an interior of a region of the conductive line are disclosed. Embodiments of a related method of designing the inductor are also disclosed.

Inductor having opening enclosed within conductive line and related method

At least one through-substrate via is formed around the periphery of a semiconductor chip or a semiconductor chiplet included in a semiconductor chip. The at least one through-substrate via may be a single through-substrate via that laterally surrounds the semiconductor chip or the semiconductor chiplet, or may comprise a plurality of through-substrate vias that surrounds the periphery with at least one gap among the through-substrate vias. A stack of back-end-of-line (BEOL) metal structures that laterally surrounds the semiconductor chip or the semiconductor chiplet are formed directly on the substrate contact vias and electrically connected to the at least one through-substrate via. A metallic layer is formed on the backside of the semiconductor substrate including the at least one through-substrate via. The conductive structure including the metallic layer, the at least one through-substrate via, and the stack of the BEOL metal structures function as an electrical ground built into the semiconductor chip.

Chip guard ring including a through-substrate via

Prior art architectures of power amplifiers employ a substantial die area, and utilize multiple integrated circuit technologies with a net higher manufacturing cost and large associated packaging area. A new scheme is presented wherein several sense and control signals are used to provide fine and gross control over the key figures of merit associated with integrated semiconductor power amplifiers. How and where these sense and control signals are used is crucial to achieving the most manufacturable and most economic integrated amplifier. In accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, a Dual Feedback-Low power regulation circuit for a three-stage power amplifier integrated circuit is provided. In accordance with a second embodiment of the invention, a current source feedback circuit having low RF output signal power regulation for a three-stage power amplifier integrated circuit is provided. In accordance with a third embodiment of the invention, a detector circuit in the form of an integrated logarithmic current detector circuit in conjunction with a three stage power amplifier integrated circuit. The three embodiments of the invention advantageously overcome the limitations of the prior art.

Integrated power amplifier circuit

A balanced power amplifier for radio frequencies. The power amplifier may be switched from operating in a saturation mode, so that AMPS-type radio telephone signals may be optimally amplified, to a linear mode so that CDMA signals may be amplified. A directional coupler splits an input signal into quadrature signal components which are supplied to the input of a pair of dual mode power amplifiers. The output signals from the dual mode amplifiers are recombined in a directional coupler. The directional coupler effectively applies all of the output power to an antenna connected to one of the coupler ports, and effectively isolates the output stages of the amplifiers from any reflected power generated by the antenna.

Growing community of inventors

Milton, FL, United States of America

John D Gillis