The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 28, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 13, 2012
Shrisagar Dwivedi, San Jose, CA (US);
Puneet Sawhney, San Jose, CA (US);
ShriSagar Dwivedi, San Jose, CA (US);
Puneet Sawhney, San Jose, CA (US);
ARM Limited, Cambridge, GB;
Abstract
A method of generating a mask for fabrication of a physical layer of an integrated circuit is provided. Multiple design layers are provided which comprise a programmable subcomponent configuration layer defining logical configurations of programmable subcomponents. A mask generation procedure transforms a selected design layer into a mask for fabrication of a physical layer. A mask modification procedure amends the mask to ensure that the physical layer will be reliably fabricated when using the mask. A non-functional design layer which does not represent one of said multiple physical layers represents further possible positions for said set of physical structures in said selected physical layer, which are not represented in said programmable subcomponent configuration layer. The mask modification procedure treats the non-functional design layer as a programmable subcomponent configuration layer. This enables the programmable subcomponent configuration layer to be modified without affecting the masks previously generated for other physical layers.