摘要:
Disclosed are embodiments of a transistor that operates as a capacitor and an associated method of tuning capacitance within such a capacitor. The embodiments of the capacitor comprise a field effect transistor with front and back gates above and below a semiconductor layer, respectively. The capacitance value exhibited by the capacitor can be selectively varied between two different values by changing the voltage condition in a source/drain region of the transistor, e.g., using a switch or resistor between the source/drain region and a voltage supply. Alternatively, the capacitance value exhibited by the capacitor can be selectively varied between multiple different values by changing voltage conditions in one or more of multiple channel regions that are flanked by multiple source/drain regions within the transistor. The capacitor will exhibit different capacitance values depending upon the conductivity in each of the channel regions.
摘要:
Chip area corresponding to unnecessary I/O cell sites is recovered and made usable for additional core cells and power connections by grouping I/O cells into I/O kernels of contiguous I/O cells having power connections independent of other I/O kernels and depopulating I/O cell sites in accordance with areas corresponding to I/O kernels. Since I/O kernels have dedicated power connections, no power busses are present in the depopulated I/O cell sites which can then be freely use for additional core cells, power connections or the like. This technique also allows selection of a chip of minimum required area to be determined prior to design of chip layout.
摘要:
An electrostatic discharge protection network that uses triple well semiconductor devices either singularly or in a series configuration. The semiconductor devices are preferably in diode junction type configuration.
摘要:
Power is gated from global terrain to a voltage island while controlling leakage and managing transient power supply noise. The voltage island includes a field effect transistor (FET) power gate, a first connection to a global voltage source and a second connection to a disable signal source, and an island voltage net for supplying voltage to devices on the island. A power gate control circuit is responsive to the disable signal source for generating a test signal for selectively turning off the FET power gate as the disable signal source goes to a logical ‘1’, and for turning on the FET power gate as said disable source goes to a logical ‘0’. The FET power gate is responsive to the disable signal source being off for connecting the island voltage net to the global voltage source. A turn on finisher circuit is responsive to the disable signal transitioning to on and to the test signal for holding the power gate solidly on; and a turn off finisher circuit is responsive to the disable signal transitioning to off and to the test signal for holding said power gate solidly off.
摘要:
A method and structure for designing an integrated circuit chip supplies a chip design and partitions elements of the chip design according to similarities in voltage requirements and timing of power states of the elements to create voltage islands. The invention outputs a voltage island specification list comprising power and timing information of each voltage island; and automatically, and without user intervention, synthesizes power supply networks for the voltage islands.
摘要:
The present invention provides a receiver device having multiple voltage supplies that allows the output stage of the receiver device to go to a safe state whenever its voltage is disconnected or powered-down, independent of any of its normal control circuits. Furthermore, the isolation of the multiple voltage supplies provides a low skew at the output of the receiver device.
摘要:
A high voltage tolerant receiver that matches a voltage drop across an NFET pass-gate at the input to the receiver with a voltage drop across a semiconductor device, formatted as a diode, and connected between an input stage and an input stage voltage supply source.
摘要:
A driver circuit has an input terminal at which a first signal having a first voltage swing is applied, and an output terminal at which: (i) a second signal having a second voltage swing is provided to external circuitry, and (ii) a third signal having a third voltage swing is received from the external circuitry. A level shifter circuit is coupled to the input terminal and translates the first signal to the second signal. The level shifter circuit includes circuitry which regulates the switching rate of the driver circuit. An output circuit is coupled between the level shifter circuit and the output terminal which drives the external circuitry with the second signal received from the level shifter circuit. The output circuit has a floating well, and a bias circuit is coupled between the output terminal and the well of the output circuit. The bias circuit biases the well proportional to the third voltage swing when the third signal is received at the output terminal. A feedback circuit is coupled between the output terminal and the output circuit. The feedback circuit deactivates at least a portion of the output circuit responsive to the third signal being received at the output terminal.