Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to dual-edge triggered (DET) clock gater circuitry. In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first series of DET clock gater circuits configured, when the DET clock gater circuits are not gating an input clock signal, to provide an output clock signal to sequential circuitry. In some embodiments, ones of the DET clock gater circuits are controlled by respective control signals and are configured to maintain a mode indicator indicating whether or not the DET clock gater circuit is inverting the polarity of its input clock when generating an output clock. In some embodiments, the apparatus also includes a first adjustable delay circuit configured to adjust delay imposed on the output clock signal from the first series of DET clock gater circuits based on the number of DET clock gater circuits in the series that are in a particular mode.

Abstract: Techniques are disclosed relating to dual-edge triggered (DET) clock gater circuitry. In some embodiments, an apparatus includes a first series of DET clock gater circuits configured, when the DET clock gater circuits are not gating an input clock signal, to provide an output clock signal to sequential circuitry. In some embodiments, ones of the DET clock gater circuits are controlled by respective control signals and are configured to maintain a mode indicator indicating whether or not the DET clock gater circuit is inverting the polarity of its input clock when generating an output clock. In some embodiments, the apparatus also includes a first adjustable delay circuit configured to adjust delay imposed on the output clock signal from the first series of DET clock gater circuits based on the number of DET clock gater circuits in the series that are in a particular mode.

Abstract: The invention includes an error correcting logic system that allows critical circuits to be hardened with only one redundant unit and without loss of circuit performance. The system provides an interconnecting gate that suppresses a fault in one of at least two redundant dynamic logic gates that feed to the interconnecting gate. The system is applicable to dynamic or static logic systems. The system prevents propagation of a fault, and addresses not only soft errors, but noise-induced errors.

Abstract: A method of testing a multi-processor unit microprocessor. The method includes: (a) selecting and testing, with a selected parameter set of a group of parameter sets, a processor unit of a microprocessor having two or more processor units; (b) comparing the operation of the selected processor unit to a selected specification of a set of operational specifications of the microprocessor; (c) if the testing indicates that the operation of the selected processor unit does not meet the selected specification, repeating (a) and (b) with a different parameter set of the group of parameter sets until either the selected processor unit meets the selected specification or all parameter sets of the group of parameter sets have been selected; and (d) if the operation of the selected processor unit does meet the selected specification, repeating (a), (b) and (c) until all processor units have been selected.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a laser fuse structure for high power applications. Specifically, the laser fuse structure of the present invention comprises first and second conductive supporting elements (12a, 12b), at least one conductive fusible link (14), first and second connection elements (20a, 20b), and first and second metal lines (22a, 22b). The conductive supporting elements (12a, 12b), the conductive fusible link (14), and the metal lines (22a, 22b) are located at a first metal level (3), while the connect elements (20a, 20b) are located at a second, different metal level (4) and are connected to the conductive supporting elements (12a, 12b) and the metal lines (22a, 22b) by conductive via stacks (18a, 18b, 23a, 23b) that extend between the first and second metal levels (3, 4).

Abstract: An SOI integrated circuit includes ESD protection on an SOI chip. A first power domain and a second power domain are provided in the SOI chip. In one embodiment, a charge modulation network in the SOI chip between the first power domain and the second power domain mitigates accumulation of electrical charge in an electrically isolated region of the SOI chip. In another embodiment, an ESD protection device in the SOI chip electrically connects the first power domain and the second power domain via a low metal layer to provide a discharge path for accumulated charge.

Abstract: The present invention provides a 6T-SRAM semiconducting structure including a substrate having an SOI region and a bulk-Si region, wherein the SOI region and the bulk-Si region have a same or differing crystallographic orientation; an isolation region separating the SOI region from the bulk-Si region; and at least one first device located in the SOI region and at least one second device located in the bulk-Si region. The SOI region has an silicon layer atop an insulating layer. The bulk-Si region further comprises a well region underlying the second device and a contact to the well region, wherein the contact stabilizes floating body effects. The well contact is also used to control the threshold voltages of the FETs in the bulk-Si region to optimized the power and performance of the SRAM cell built from the combination of the SOI and bulk-Si region FETs.

Abstract: A low leakage monotonic CMOS logic circuit and a method, a method of design and a system for designing such circuits. The circuit, including: one or more logic stages, at least one of the logic stages having a predominantly high input state or having a predominantly low input state; wherein the logic stages having the predominantly high input state, comprise one or more thin gate dielectric and high threshold voltage PFETs with respect to a reference PFET and one or more thick gate dielectric and low threshold voltage NFETs with respect to a reference NFET; and wherein the logic stages having the predominantly low input state, comprise one or more thick gate dielectric and low threshold voltage PFETs with respect to the reference PFET and one or more thin gate dielectric and high threshold voltage NFETs with respect to the reference NFET.

Abstract: An SOI integrated circuit includes ESD protection on an SOI chip. A first power domain and a second power domain are provided in the SOI chip. In one embodiment , a charge modulation network in the SOI chip between the first power domain and the second power domain mitigates accumulation of electrical charge in an electrically isolated region of the SOI chip. In another embodiment, an ESD protection device in the SOI chip electrically connects the first power domain and the second power domain via a low metal layer to provide a discharge path for accumulated charge.

Abstract: The invention includes an error correcting logic system that allows critical circuits to be hardened with only one redundant unit and without loss of circuit performance. The system provides an interconnecting gate that suppresses a fault in one of at least two redundant dynamic logic gates that feed to the interconnecting gate. The system is applicable to dynamic or static logic systems. The system prevents propagation of a fault, and addresses not only soft errors, but noise-induced errors.

Abstract: A low leakage monotonic CMOS logic circuit and a method, a method of design and a system for designing such circuits. The circuit, including: one or more logic stages, at least one of the logic stages having a predominantly high input state or having a predominantly low input state; wherein the logic stages having the predominantly high input state, comprise one or more thin gate dielectric and high threshold voltage PFETs with respect to a reference PFET and one or more thick gate dielectric and low threshold voltage NFETs with respect to a reference NFET; and wherein the logic stages having the predominantly low input state, comprise one or more thick gate dielectric and low threshold voltage PFETs with respect to the reference PFET and one or more thin gate dielectric and high threshold voltage NFETs with respect to the reference NFET.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for preventing circuit failures due to gate oxide leakage, and is used to efficiently check many nets of a circuit on a chip or within a macro to find logical fails due to gate oxide leakage using DC calculations, wherein the gate leakage is treated as a noise source for a static noise analysis of the circuit.

Abstract: A method is disclosed of temperature compensation for measurement of a temperature sensitive parameter of semiconductor IC chips, particularly temperature compensation for a maximum frequency measurement (Fmax) and speed sort/categorization of semiconductor IC chips. The method comprises determining a change of a temperature sensitive parameter of the chip with temperature; measuring the temperature sensitive parameter of the chip during testing of the chip; measuring the chip temperature directly during or following the measurement of the temperature sensitive parameter; and determining an adjusted temperature sensitive parameter of the chip based upon the measured temperature sensitive parameter of the chip during testing, the measured chip temperature, and the determined change of the temperature sensitive parameter of the chip with temperature.

Abstract: A method (200, 300, 400, 500) utilizing available timing slack in the various timing paths (108) of a synchronous integrated circuit (104) to reduce the overall instantaneous current draw across the circuit. In the method, each timing path is analyzed to determine its late mode margin or its late mode margin and early mode margin. A delay is added to each timing path having a late mode margin greater than zero. In one embodiment, the delay is equal to the corresponding late mode margin. In another embodiment, the delay is equal to the difference between the corresponding late and early mode margins. Each delay effectively shifts the peak current draw for the corresponding timing path within each clock cycle so that the peaks do not occur simultaneously across all timing paths. In other embodiments, the peak overall instantaneous current draw can be further reduced by reducing the delay in some of the delayed timing paths.

Abstract: In a first aspect, a cross-coupled inverter is provided that includes a first inverter circuit having a first NFET coupled to a first PFET and a second inverter circuit having a second NFET coupled to a second PFET. The second inverter circuit is cross-coupled with the first inverter circuit at a plurality of nodes. The body of at least one of the first NFET, the second NFET, the first PFET and the second PFET is coupled so as to form a feedback path that reduces discharging at one or more of the plurality of nodes in response to a soft error event at the cross-coupled inverter.

Abstract: A detector circuit and method for detecting a silicon well voltage or current to indicate an alpha particle or cosmic ray strike of the silicon well. One significant application for the detection circuit of the present invention is for the redundancy repair latches that are used in SRAMs. The redundancy repair latches are normally written once at power-up to record failed latch data and are not normally written again. If one of the latches changes states due to an SER (Soft Error Rate-such as a strike by an alpha particle or cosmic ray) event, the repair data in the redundancy latches of the SRAM would now be incorrectly mapped. The detector circuit and method monitors the latches for the occurrence of an SER event, and responsive thereto issues a reload of the repair data to the redundancy repair latches.

Abstract: A radiation detector formed using silicon-on-insulator technology. The radiation detector includes a silicon layer formed on an insulating substrate, wherein the silicon layer includes a PNPN structure, and a gate layer formed over the PNPN structure, wherein the gate layer includes a PN gate. Latch-up occurs in the radiation detector only in response to incident radiation.