Intel Corporation

Kushal Sreedhar

Christopher P Mozak

Mahmoud Elassal

A scheme intelligently balances existing TM0 resources to simultaneously boost both AC and DC power delivery topologies without incurring a penalty on either area or IR drop. TM0 tracks are either regular or staples. Regular tracks are continuous across the width of an active silicon. Staples are located right under the respective TM1 (Top Metal 1) tracks. TM1 is above TM0 in the hierarchy of metal layers. The staples aid in increasing the total TV0 (Top Via 0 that connects TM0 to TM1) density for all supplies simultaneously as they are consecutively track-shared between the TM1 tracks. This boost in via density helps reduce the net series resistance of the MIM capacitor as the Manhattan (displacement) distance between the supply and ground vias is now reduced. The outcome is a high-density high-bandwidth MIM capacitor, located between the main power distribution layers in the die metal stack—TM0 and TM1.

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Portland, OR, United States of America

Kushal Sreedhar