Faraday Technology Corporation

Tin-Hao Lin

Jeng-Huang Wu

Shyh-Jye Jou

Chia-Nan Hong

Hsiao-Ping Lin

Shu-Hua Kuo

Ray-De Chiao

An integrated circuit chip with a high area utilization rate includes: a plurality of logic circuits in a logic area; a first input and output circuit near a first side of the logic area for exchanging signals with the logic circuit; a second input and output circuit near a second side of the logic area for exchanging signals with the logic circuit; a plurality of first probe pads coupled to the first and the second input and output circuits for inputting or outputting signals to the first and the second input and output circuits; a corner cell comprising a plurality of wires coupled to the first and the second input and output circuits for exchanging signals between the first and the second input and output circuits; and a first process monitor circuit formed in the corner cell for monitoring a semiconductor process of the integrated circuit chip.

Integrated circuit chip with high area utilization rate

A low noise output buffer to simultaneously reduce switching noise and output signal ringing for output ringing and maintain DC current. A temporary and a steady-state output buffers are supplied by a buffer voltage source and an internal circuit voltage source, respectively. Each driver has a pull-up and a pull-down transistors. While switching the output buffer from a high voltage level to a low voltage level or from a low voltage level to a high voltage level, a predriver and a single steady-state circuit are designed to respectively generate a large simultaneous switching noise at the buffer voltage source and a small simultaneous switching noise at the internal circuit voltage source. A Schmitt trigger circuit is also used to turn off the temporary driver, so as to reduce the output signal ringing while the steady-state driver maintains a supply of DC current. In another design of a low noise output buffer to reduce ground bounces and output signal ringing as well as to maintain a DC current, a temporary driver is used. An adaptive characteristic of the low noise output buffer under different loading conditions is achieved by a feedback circuit. The temporary driver is turned on only during the middle period of output transition time to provide an additional charging or discharging current. Since the temporary driver is always off apart from the transition period, the effect of reducing ground bounces and output signal ringing can thus be outstanding.

Low noise output buffer

An input/output (I/O) device with programmable I/O characteristics is provided for use on an integrated circuit to serve as a communication interface whose input/output characteristics can be set through programmable means to be matched to the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use. This allows the IC chip on which the I/O device is provided to be matched for use with various kinds of external systems. Further, the I/O device can also be provided with a self-control feature that can detect whether the I/O characteristics of the I/O device are matched to the external circuitry and, if not, automatically set the I/O device to the required I/O characteristic. The I/O device can prevent an IC chip from being discarded due to a mismatch in the I/O characteristics with the external circuitry to which the IC chip is connected for use.

On-chip input/output device having programmable I/O unit being

A silicon chip having a mixed input/output slot structure comprising a core region having a plurality of circuits formed thereon, a wiring region surrounding and linked to the core region, and an input/output area surrounding and linked to the wiring region, where the input/output area has a plurality of input/output slots and four corner cells. The input/output slots can be divided into groups with each group having a different height, and input/output slots on the same side of the input/output area all have the same height. Therefore, a choice of sides for placing the input/output slots can be made, and the layout of input/output slots around the silicon chip is not be restricted by one side. Hence, chip size can be reduced and chip surface can be fully utilized.

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Hsin-Chu, Taiwan

Tin-Hao Lin