Interconnect lines including tri-directional buffer circuits

Abstract

A metal interconnect line for conducting a first signal from a first line segment of a field programmable gate array to a second line segment. The metal interconnect line substantially spans across the width of the field programmable gate array and has at least one bi-directional buffer that separates the metal interconnect line into a plurality of independent segments. Each of these segments can conduct signals independently from the other segments when the bidirectional buffer is in a tristate mode. Alternatively, a single signal may be routed through the entire length of the metal line in one or the other direction, and repowered along the way. One or more of the bi-directional buffers are used to actively drive the signal(s) onto later segments of the metal interconnect line.