scispace - formally typeset
Patent

Methods and apparatus for extracting parasitic capacitance values from a physical design of an integrated circuit

Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
In this article, computer-implemented methods and apparatus for extracting and computing parasitic capacitance values and capacitances respectively, from a physical design of an integrated circuit are described.
Abstract
Computer-implemented methods and apparatus for extracting and computing parasitic capacitance values and capacitances respectively, from a physical design of an integrated circuit are described. In one embodiment, the physical design comprises a plurality of layered conductors which are disposed within a first dielectric material. At least one conductor of the plurality of conductors is identified, and for the identified conductor, the first dielectric material is replaced for calculational purposes with a second (fictitious) dielectric material having a dielectric constant which is higher than the dielectric constant of the replaced dielectric material. In general, the second dielectric may have a different dielectric constant for each identified layer or elevation. Parasitic capacitance values are then computed for the integrated circuit. In a preferred embodiment, spaced-apart conductors at a common substrate elevation are identified, and a distance between the conductors is determined. If the determined distance exceeds a predetermined distance value, the first dielectric material is replaced with the second dielectric material. Such provides a basis for extracting parasitic capacitance values and computing one or more parasitic capacitances which more accurately represents the effect of the presence of fill structures within the physical integrated circuit.

read more

Citations
More filters
Patent

Methodology to characterize metal sheet resistance of copper damascene process

TL;DR: In this article, the drawn dimensions and local pattern density of a damascene interconnect are extracted in an integrated circuit device and a parameter of the interconnect is calculated using the drawn dimension and the local pattern densities to select a per unit value.
Patent

Structurally-stabilized capacitors and method of making of same

TL;DR: In this article, a brace layer is formed as a microbridge type structure spanning between the upper ends of the two or more free-standing microstructures, which is used to provide mechanical reinforcement against shear forces and the like.
Patent

Accurate capacitance measurement for ultra large scale integrated circuits

TL;DR: In this paper, the capacitance measured on a target test structure that has to-be-measured contact or via capacitance is measured on the same reference test structure and then repeated on a substantially similar reference structure.
Patent

Method for hierarchical parasitic extraction of a CMOS design

TL;DR: In this article, a method for extracting parasitic data in a hierarchical manner from a trial layout of the integrated circuit is provided, where each instance of each cell, a portion of intercell signal lines that are routed over that instance of the cell are cut out in a cookie cutter fashion by specifying an area in the trial layout corresponding to the instance of a cell such that the portion of the signal lines within the area can be processed.
Patent

System and method for limiting increase in capacitance due to dummy metal fills utilized for improving planar profile uniformity

Soo-Young Oh
TL;DR: In this article, a computer-automated method for locating dummy fills in an integrated circuit fabrication process generally comprises reading a layout file specifying layout of the integrated circuit, designating at least one net of the IC as a critical net, the critical nets being only a subset of all nets, identifying metal conductors corresponding to each designated critical net from the layout file, delineating a net blocking exclusion zone extending a distance of a minimum net blocking distance (NBD) from the metal conductor for each metal conductor identified, and locating the dummy fills outside of the net-blocking
References
More filters
Patent

Creating optimized physical implementations from high-level descriptions of electronic design using placement based information

Tommy K. Eng
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a system that takes a RTL model of an electronic design and maps it into an efficient, high level hierarchical representation of the hardware implementation of the design.
Patent

Method and CAD system for designing wiring patterns using predetermined rules

TL;DR: In this article, a CAD system for designing wiring patterns is presented, where a wiring start point and a wiring end point are selected from a component placement drawing of a printed wiring board displayed on a display screen using a pointing device.
Patent

Physical design automation system and process for designing integrated circuit chips using multiway partitioning with constraints

TL;DR: In this article, the assignment of the cells of the set to the regions is generated, and the set of cells is randomly divided into a first subset of cells which remain in the assignment, and a second subset which are removed from the assignment.
Patent

Integrated circuit having a dummy structure and method of making

TL;DR: In this paper, a pattern of dummy structures is added to the layout pattern of an integrated circuit to equilibrate the polishing rate across the surface of a semiconductor substrate.
Patent

Method and apparatus for modeling capacitance in an integrated circuit

TL;DR: In this article, a method for calculating the parasitic capacitance in a semiconductor device is presented, where a layout file containing the shapes of the semiconductor devices is provided, and the dimensions of the layout file are then adjusted to wafer dimensions so as to reflect actual production devices.