Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Comp. Ltd.

Yu-Cheng Yeh

Hui-Zhong Zhuang

Tung-Heng Hsieh

Sheng-Hsiung Wang

Tsung-Chieh Tsai

Jyh-Kang Ting

Juing-Yi Wu

Liang-Yao Lee

Yen-Sen Wang

Ming-Yi Lin

Various examples of conductor features in integrated circuit layouts are disclosed herein. In an example, a method includes receiving an integrated circuit layout, inserting, into the integrated circuit layout, a design containing a first set of Front-End Of Line (FEOL) shapes of an integrated circuit and a first set of Back-End Of Line (BEOL) shapes of the integrated circuit, inserting, into the integrated circuit layout, a set of cells containing a second set of FEOL shapes of the integrated circuit and a second set of BEOL shapes of the integrated circuit, removing a subset of the second set of BEOL shapes that conflict with the design, and providing the integrated circuit layout that includes the design and the set of cells for fabrication of the integrated circuit. The second set of FEOL shapes includes contact shapes that define contacts of the integrated circuit.

Integrated circuit layouts with fill feature shapes

Various examples of conductor features in integrated circuit layouts are disclosed herein. In an example, a method includes initializing a layout for fabricating an integrated circuit. A plurality of fill cells is inserted into the layout. The plurality of fill cells includes a plurality of fill line shapes that correspond to conductive lines of the integrated circuit. Thereafter, a design is inserted into the layout that includes a plurality of functional shapes. A conflicting subset of the plurality of fill line shapes of the plurality of fill cells that conflict with the plurality functional shapes are removed. The layout that includes the plurality of fill cells and the design is provided for fabricating the integrated circuit.

A post placement abutment treatment for cell row design is provided. In an embodiment a first cell and a second cell are placed in a first cell row and a third cell and a fourth cell are placed into a second cell row. After placement vias connecting power and ground rails to the underlying structures are analyzed to determine if any can be merged or else removed completely. By merging and removing the closely placed vias, the physical limitations of photolithography may be by-passed, allowing for smaller structures to be formed.

Cell layout and structure

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Taipei, Taiwan

Yu-Cheng Yeh