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:
Aug. 04, 2015

Filed:

Mar. 11, 2013
Applicant:

Qualcomm Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);

Inventors:

Kambiz Samadi, San Diego, CA (US);

Shreepad A. Panth, Atlanta, GA (US);

Jing Xie, University Park, PA (US);

Yang Du, Carlsbad, CA (US);

Assignee:

QUALCOMM Incorporated, San Diego, CA (US);

Attorneys:
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 17/50 (2006.01); H01L 23/522 (2006.01); G11C 5/14 (2006.01); G06F 1/32 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
G06F 17/5072 (2013.01); G06F 1/32 (2013.01); G06F 17/5068 (2013.01); G11C 5/14 (2013.01); H01L 23/5226 (2013.01); G06F 17/505 (2013.01); G06F 17/5045 (2013.01); G06F 17/5077 (2013.01); G06F 2217/62 (2013.01); H01L 2924/0002 (2013.01);
Abstract

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are directed to systems and method for designing a clock distribution network for an integrated circuit. The embodiments identify critical sources of clock skew, tightly control the timing of the clock and build that timing into the overall clock distribution network and integrated circuit design. The disclosed embodiments separate the clock distribution network (CDN), i.e., clock generation circuitry, wiring, buffering and registers, from the rest of the logic to improve the clock tree design and reduce the area footprint. In one embodiment, the CDN is separated to a separate tier of a 3D integrated circuit, and the CDN is connected to the logic tier(s) via high-density inter-tier vias. The embodiments are particularly advantageous for implementation with monolithic 3D integrated circuits.


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