Motorola Corporation

Richard S Ramus

James R Lundberg

James G Gay

James Edward Dunning

An integrated circuit (10), which is designed using standard cells (20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 28, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52), usually has one or more empty spaces (54) wherein no circuitry is formed. These empty spaces may be used to form capacitor standard cells which have capacitors (see FIGS. 3 and 4) to both ground and power supply lines within the integrated circuit. These capacitors are used to reduce noise in the power and supply lines in a manner more useful/efficient than known methods. The capacitor standard cell taught herein is more useful/efficient due to the fact that the capacitance provided by these standard cells is distributed over the entire integrated circuit in small portions (i.e., standard cells are placed all over the integrated circuit (10)), and is placed close to the logic which is switching. It is the switching logic which is the root of a large portion of internal integrated circuit noise.

Standard cell having a capacitor and a power supply capacitor for

An output driver circuit has a circuitry portion (70) which is used to generate a Drive-Hi control signal in response to an Output Enable, an optional Precondition signal, and a Data Input signal. A circuit portion (75) ensures that the Drive-Hi control signal is maintained at a voltage which is substantially equal to Vdd when the Output Enable is deactivated. Circuit portion (80) selectively controls the Data Output by driving Vdd onto the Data Output in response to the Drive-Hi control signal being activated. A circuit portion (100) functions to selectively drive the Data Output to a logic zero (ground potential) when a Drive-Lo signal is asserted. Circuit portions (90 and 95) generate the Drive-Lo signal in response to the Output Enable, the optional Precondition signal, and the Data Input signal. In general, the output driver circuit allows an integrated circuit powered at a first voltage to interface to another integrated circuit which is powered at a higher second voltage without loss of performance, without excessive leakage currents, without crossover current, and without increasing gate oxide stresses.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

Richard S Ramus