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.

Date of Patent:
Jun. 09, 2015

Filed:

Sep. 05, 2013
Applicant:

International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);

Inventors:

Shyam Parthasarathy, Bangalore, IN;

Ananth Sundaram, Bangalore, IN;

Balaji Swaminathan, Bangalore, IN;

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 21/02 (2006.01); H01L 49/02 (2006.01); H01G 7/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
H01L 28/40 (2013.01); H01G 7/00 (2013.01);
Abstract

A variable capacitance semiconductor structure is disclosed. Embodiments include a capacitor having three plates, a top plate, a middle plate, and a bottom plate. The top plate serves as a positive plate. The middle and bottom plates serve as ground plates for the capacitor. A switching circuit selects between the middle plate and the bottom plate for use as the ground plate of the capacitor. The middle plate is slotted, allowing electric fields to penetrate through the middle plate to the bottom plate. The slots prevent the electric fields from terminating at the middle plate. A different capacitance value can be selected, depending on whether the middle plate or bottom plate is selected as the ground plate. Logic circuitry is configured to control the selection of plates to achieve a variety of capacitance values.


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