Intersil Americas Inc.

Harris Corporation

John T Gasner

Michael D Church

Chris A McCarty

Paul E Bakeman, Jr

David A Decrosta

Sameer D Parab

Robert Lomenick

Anthony L Rivoli

James Douglas Beasom

Dustin Alexander Woodbury

Akira Ito

John L Stanton

Jeanne Marie McNamara

Donald Frank Hemmenway

Phillip J Benzel

Joy Ellen Jones

Helen Hongwei Li

William R Young

Jack H Linn

Stephen J Gaul

Robert T Fuller

Kantilal Bacrania

Lawrence G Pearce

Patrick Anthony Begley

Gregory J Fisher

George E Gimpelson

Glenn A Dejong

John J Hackenberg

W Ronald Young

Choong-Sun Rhee

Frederick N Hause

Elias W George

Robert Lomenic

Dave Kutchmarick

Jeffrey M Johnston

Choong S Rhee

Paul E Bakeman

Robert L Lomenick

Paul E Bakeman Jr

A device having a detector includes a sensor package. The sensor package includes a light sensor, at least one filter located over the light sensor and at least one bond pad. The light sensor is formed on a semiconductor device that provides sensor information related to light incident upon the light sensor. A perimeter of each bond pad is covered by a protective layer forming a sidewall seal. The sensor package also includes a package that encases the light sensor, filter(s) and bond pad(s). Additionally, at least one package pin is communicatively coupled to the bond pad(s). The device also includes a functional circuit that is coupled to the sensor package and receives the sensor information from the light sensor. The device can be an ambient light sensor, camera, backlit mirror, handheld electronic device, filter device, light-to-digital output sensor, gain selection device, proximity sensor, or light-to-voltage non-linear converter.

Devices including bond pad having protective sidewall seal

A semiconductor structure comprises a top metal layer, a bond pad formed on the top metal layer, a conductor formed below the top metal layer, and an insulation layer separating the conductor from the top metal layer. The top metal layer includes a sub-layer of relatively stiff material compared to the remaining portion of the top metal layer. The sub-layer of relatively stiff material is configured to distribute stresses over the insulation layer to reduce cracking in the insulation layer.

Active area bonding compatible high current structures

A method for opening a bond pad on a semiconductor device is provided. The method comprises removing a first layer to expose a first portion of the bond pad and forming a protective layer over the exposed first portion of the bond pad. The method further comprises performing subsequent processing of the semiconductor device and removing the protective layer to expose a second portion of the bond pad.

Protecting bond pad for subsequent processing

The formation of devices in semiconductor material is provided using an HF/HCL cleaning process. In one embodiment, the method includes forming at least one hard mask overlaying at least one layer of resistive material, forming at least one opening to a working surface of a silicon substrate of the semiconductor device, and cleaning the semiconductor device with a diluted HF/HCL process. The HF/HCL process includes applying a dilute of HF for a select amount of time and applying a dilute of HCL for a specific amount of time. After cleaning with the diluted HF/HCL process, a silicide contact junction is formed in the at least one opening to the working surface of the silicon substrate, and interconnect metal layers are formed.

Integrated process for thin film resistors with silicides

A method of forming a semiconductor structure is provided. One method comprises forming a device region between a substrate and a bond pad. Patterning a conductor between the bond pad and the device region with gaps. Filling the gaps with insulation material that is harder than the conductor to form pillars of relatively hard material that extend through the conductor and forming an insulation layer of the insulation material between the conductor and the bond pad.

The formation of devices in semiconductor material is provided using an HF/HCL cleaning process. In one embodiment, the method includes forming at least one hard mask overlaying at least one layer of resistive material. Forming at least one opening to a working surface of a silicon substrate of the semiconductor device. Cleaning the semiconductor device with a diluted HF/HCL process. The HF/HCL process including, applying a dilute of HF for a select amount of time and applying a dilute of HCL for a specific amount of time. After cleaning with the diluted HF/HCL process, forming a silicide contact junction in the at least one of the opening to the working surface of the silicon substrate and forming interconnect metal layers.

The formation of devices in semiconductor material. In one embodiment, a method of forming a semiconductor device is provided. The method comprises forming at least one hard mask overlaying at least one layer of resistive material. Forming at least one opening to a working surface of a silicon substrate of the semiconductor device. Cleaning the semiconductor device with a diluted HF/HCL process. After cleaning with the diluted HF/HCL process, forming a silicide contact junction in the at least one of the opening to the working surface of the silicon substrate and then forming interconnect metal layers.

An integrated circuit with circuits under a bond pad. In one embodiment, the integrated circuit comprises a substrate, a top conductive layer, one or more intermediate conductive layers, layers of insulating material and devices. The top conductive layer has a at least one bonding pad and a sub-layer of relatively stiff material. The one or more intermediate conductive layers are formed between the top conductive layer and the substrate. The layers of insulating material separate the conductive layers. Moreover, one layer of the layers of insulating material is relatively hard and is located between the top conductive layer and an intermediate conductive layer closest to the top conductive layer. The devices are formed in the integrated circuit. In addition, at least the intermediate conductive layer closest to the top conductive layer is adapted for functional interconnections of select devices under the bond pad.

To program a CMOS memory, an auxiliary bipolar transistor is formed in a P-well adjacent to the P-well of an NMOS device of the CMOS memory, the auxiliary transistor being capable of forcing a large magnitude current through a fusible link, so as to program the electronic state of the CMOS memory cell into a prescribed binary (1/0) condition. A separate implant mask for the emitter region of the auxiliary transistor allows the geometry and impurity concentration profile of the emitter region to be tailored by a deep dual implant, so that the impurity concentration of the emitter region is not decreased, and yields a reduced base width for the auxiliary transistor to provide a relatively large current gain to blow the fuse, while allowing the doping parameters of the source/drain regions of the CMOS structure to be separately established to prevent thyristor latch-up.

CMOS integrated circuit architecture incorporating deep implanted emitter region to form auxiliary bipolar transistor

A semiconductor device which includes a polysilicon gate separated from a semiconductor substrate by a re-oxidized nitrided oxide film in which the concentration of re-oxidized nitride in the film underlying the gate is non-uniform and in which the concentration of nitrogen in the substrate and the re-oxidized nitrided oxide along their interface and underlying the gate is non-uniform. Methods are disclosed of providing the non-uniform concentrations by incomplete shielding of the oxide by the gate during the nitriding and re-oxidizing process.

Non-uniformly nitrided gate oxide and method

Room temperature-testing of an MOS field effect transistor architecture, whose parameters have been optimized for operation at cryogenic temperatures, is facilitated by applying a prescribed reverse body-to-source voltage bias, that modifies the variation of the drain-to-source current vs. gate-to-source voltage characteristic, so as to shift the gate threshold voltage to a value corresponding to the device operating at its optimally designed cryogenic temperature. The magnitude of this back bias voltage is set at a value which adds to the number of charges required to balance the gate voltage before an inversion condition is achieved. In effect, the back bias causes the depletion layer beneath the gate to be expanded into the body beneath the gate, thereby compensating for what would otherwise be depletion mode operation, if the cryogenically designed MOS device were placed at room temperature. This allows the cryogenic performance of the MOS field effect transistor to be tested at room temperature, thereby substantially reducing manufacturing cost. Upon completion of testing of the circuit to evaluate its performance at cryogenic temperatures, the back-bias is removed, so as to allow normal operation in the circuit's intended cryogenic environment.

Arrangement and method for improving room-temperature testability of

Growing community of inventors

Satellite Beach, FL, United States of America

John T Gasner