Hewlett-packard Company

Nolan David Sharp

Henry Yu

Sebastian Turullois

An application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and method of manufacture. The ASIC includes a substrate layer, at least one metal layer and an operational block. The metal layer is formed above the substrate layer. The operational block is formed in the substrate layer and the metal layer, and is definable by a two-dimensional boundary. The operational block includes a plurality of operational logic gates, a first subgroup of spare logic gates, a second subgroup of spare logic gates, operational wiring and spare gate wiring. The operational logic gates, the first subgroup and the second subgroup are formed on the substrate layer, with the first subgroup being spaced from the second subgroup. The operational wiring is routed into the metal layer and interconnects the operational logic gates to configure the operational block to perform a desired operation. The spare gate wiring is similarly routed into the metal layer. The spare gate wiring is separate from the operational wiring, and connects at least one of the first subgroup logic gates to at least one of the second subgroup logic gates. In a preferred embodiment, a plurality of metal layers are provided, and a spacing between the subgroups dictates that the spare gate wiring, as formed by an automatic routing tool, extends to the outer metal layers where it is accessible by a focused ion beam device.

Application specific integrated circuit with spaced spare logic gate subgroups and method of fabrication

The present invention is a system and method for providing a signal to a load. A first driver receives a first input signal from within the integrated circuit and provides a first output signal at an output. A second driver receives a second signal from within the integrated circuit and provides a second output signal at an output. An electrically coupling device couples the first and second signals at the outputs of the first and second drivers to produce a combined driver signal. The electrically coupling device provides the combined driver signal to a load.

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Santa Clara, CA, United States of America

Nolan David Sharp