Abstract: A digital FM demodulator employs a baseband phase lock loop (BBPLL), which is particularly effective for long range reception, for combining and demodulating a pair of signals represented by the mathematical expression A(t)ej&thgr;(t) to result in an approximation of d&thgr;/dt. This approximation is then subjected to an inverse of the linear approximation of the frequency response of the BBPLL that produces a very accurate &thgr;. This is conveniently achieved with a IIR filter whose transfer function happens to be the same as the inverse of the linear approximation of the frequency response of the BBPLL. The derivative is then taken of &thgr; to produce a very accurate d&thgr;/dt, the desired result for the output of an FM demodulator. To aid operation of the BBPLL, the incoming digital intermediate frequency is upsampled by a combination of sample and hold and FIR filtering prior to being processed by the BBPLL.

Abstract: A semiconductor device (20) includes an isolated p-well (22) formed in a substrate (21) by a buried n-well (25) and an n-well ring (24). The n-well ring (24) extends from a surface of the semiconductor device (20) to the buried n-well (25). The isolated p-well (22) includes a plurality of n-well plugs (27) extending from the surface of the semiconductor device (20) into the isolated p-well (22) and contacting the buried n-well (25). The plurality of n-well plugs (27) reduces an n-well resistance to provide better noise isolation for high frequency signals.

Abstract: A semiconductor device (50) includes a semiconductor die (52) having electronic circuitry that is connected to a substrate (54). The substrate (54) is used to interface the semiconductor die (52) to a printed circuit board (64). The substrate (54) includes a plurality of bonding pads (56, 58). A first portion of the plurality of bonding pads are soldermask defined (SMD) bonding pads (56) and a second portion of the plurality of bonding pads are non-soldermask defined (NSMD) bonding pads (58). Using a combination of SMD and NSMD bonding pads provides the advantages of good thermal cycling reliability and good bending reliability over devices that have only SMD bonding pads or NSMD bonding pads.

Abstract: The present invention relates generally to analyzing small signal response and noise in nonlinear circuits. One embodiment relates to a computer implemented method for analyzing an electrical circuit. The method includes receiving a circuit description and circuit element models, generating circuit equations using the circuit description and models, and determining a periodic stead-state response of the electrical circuit in the time domain. The method further includes linearizing the circuit element models about the steady-state response, generating a time-varying linear system of equations, and representing a small signal solution to the time-varying linear system of equations in response to a sine wave input as an amplitude modulated sine wave.

Abstract: A transistor device (19) utilizes a high K dielectric (24) between a gate electrode (16) and a substrate (12). The high K dielectric (24) is etched under the gate electrode (16) so that there is an area between the gate electrode (16) and the substrate (12) that is void of high K dielectric (24). The source/drains extensions (28 and 30) are minimized to extend substantially in alignment with the edge of gate dielectric (24) to reduce overlap with the gate dielectric (24). This results in reduced capacitance between the gate and the source/drain extensions. The void areas (20 and 22) between the gate and the substrate (12) may remain void or may be filled with a low K dielectric, or at least a dielectric that is not high K.

Abstract: A balanced twist design for differential small signal pairs which is balanced in terms of resistance, capacitance and process variance. In the twist design of the present invention, each routing (6, 10) passes through two layers of metal. In addition, each routing (6, 10) passes through the same number of vias (9, 13, 14, 15), and experiences the same number of bends. Each routing (6, 10) is also exposed to the same sidewall crosstalk since the length and width of each routing (6, 10) in both metal layers is approximately the same. As a result, the new twist design reduces signal degradation, enhances signal separation, and allows increased clock speed of the integrated circuit.

Abstract: A RSD analog to digital converter has an RSD stage that in turn has a switched capacitor integrator (SCI). The SCI uses an operational amplifier. A capacitor, which operates as a offset compensation capacitor, is precharged to the offset voltage of the operational amplifier during a precharge phase. The next phase switches this offset compensation capacitor in the path of the capacitors which are used to perform the integration. The effect is that the offset of the operational amplifier is corrected by the use of the compensation capacitor that had been precharged to the offset voltage during the previous phase.

Abstract: A process for forming a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor structure includes forming a recess in the dielectric layer (20) of a semiconductor substrate (10). A first capacitor electrode (30, 40) is formed in the recess having a copper first metal layer (30) with a conductive oxidation barrier (40) formed over the first metal layer (30). The first capacitor electrode (30, 40) is planarized relative to the dielectric layer (20). An insulator (50) is formed over the first capacitor electrode (30, 40) and a second capacitor electrode (65) is formed over the insulator (50). Forming the first capacitor electrode (30, 40) in the recess maintains the alignment of a periphery of the copper first metal layer (30) with the conductive oxidation barrier (40).

Abstract: An output buffer (100) has a pre-driver circuit (120) for controlling a voltage transition of an output signal from an output driver transistor (150). The pre-driver circuit (120) provides an input that slightly leads the gate voltage of the output driver transistor (150). The pre-driver circuit (120) includes a configurable resistance circuit (480) that provides one resistance value at the start of a signal transition and provides another resistance value near the end of the signal transition. A threshold detector (470) senses a voltage level of the input signal and switches from one resistance value to the other resistance value when the input signal crosses a predetermined voltage.

Abstract: A ball grid array (BGA) or chips scale package (CSP) integrated circuit (IC) (20) is manufactured by first identifying the most unreliable solder ball joints in the IC. These worst case joints, or joints in the vicinity of the worst case joints, are changed in pad dimension and exposed to more ball/bump conductive material than the other more robust joints (14) in the IC (20) to create a ball (24) on a larger pad (22) that is larger than the normal sized ball (14). The larger balls (24) are formed by placing multiple smaller balls (14) together on a single pad (22) to form one larger ball (24) during a reflow operation. The larger ball (24) improves the overall IC reliability by improving the reliability of the weakest joints in the IC design. In addition, the standoff of both the larger balls (24) and the smaller balls (14) are engineered to be substantially equal.

Abstract: A data processor (102) includes a first-in, first-out (FIFO) buffer (110) having a variable threshold. The FIFO buffer (110) has a plurality of entries (200) for storing at least a portion of a data block that is to be transmitted through the FIFO buffer (110). To allow data blocks of varying size to be transmitted at different data rates, a variable threshold value for determining a maximum fullness of the FIFO buffer (110) is automatically calculated by the data processor (102) for each data block. This allows the data block to be transmitted through the FIFO buffer (110) as a continuous data stream, without interruption, from the data processor (102) to a data consumer. The variable threshold value is appended to a first entry of the data block along with start bits to indicate a beginning of the data block. The FIFO buffer (110) may include read and write counters (208, 212) and a comparator (210) for comparing a difference between read and write pointers and the variable threshold value.

Abstract: The data processing system loads three input operands, including two input vectors and a control vector, into vector registers and performs a permutation of the two input vectors as specified by the control vector, and further stores the result of the operation as the output operand in an output register. The control vector consists of sixteen indices, each uniquely identifying a single byte of input data in either of the input registers, and can be specified in the operational code or be the result of a computation previously performed within the vector registers. The control vector is specified by calculating the offset of a selected vector element of the input vector relative to a base address of the input vector and loading each element with an index equal to the relative offset. Alternatively, the generation of the alignment vector is made by performing a look-up within a look-up table.

Abstract: A circuit (20) includes a resistor (26) and a current source (32) for raising the voltage of the source of the N-channel transistor in order to keep the base-emitter voltage of the parasitic bipolar device from forward biasing to prevent conduction in the parasitic bipolar device. In one embodiment, a relatively small resistor (26) is coupled between the source of an N-channel transistor (24) and ground. The current source (32) is used to direct some of the ESD current from a positive ESD event through the small source resistor (26) so that the source of the N-channel transistor (24) is elevated during the event, thus preventing snapback of the parasitic bipolar device.

Abstract: A wideband CDMA handset (20) has a receiver (50) which simplifies initial sequence acquisition. The receiver (50) includes an efficient searcher receiver (54) which searches for long code mask sequences (LMS) using two correlators (80, 100). The searcher receiver (54) determines the complex conjugate of the output of the first correlator (80), and uses it to remove the phase ambiguity of the output of the second correlator (100). Thus the second correlator (100) is able to perform multiple correlations at the same time. The searcher receiver (54) coherently combines the output of the second correlator (100) to improve the reliability of the search decision.

Abstract: An integrated circuit (100) includes an input buffer circuit (122) having an input stage (150), a delay element (178), inverter (176), and a level shifter (156). The input stage (150) receives an input signal and a first power supply voltage. The level shifter (156) has a pair of cross-coupled P-channel transistors (158 and 160) coupled to a second power supply voltage. The second power supply voltage is different than the first power supply voltage. The cross-coupled P-channel transistors (158 and 160) are coupled to first and second N-channel transistors (162 and 164). Each of the first and second N-channel transistors (162 and 164) and transistors (152, 154) of the input stage (150) have relatively thick oxide layers. A gate of the first N-channel transistor (162) is coupled to the output of the input stage (150). A gate of the second N-channel transistor (164) is coupled to receive the input signal.

Abstract: A compiler system (190) stores a data structure (101, e.g., a program) to a memory (110) of an execution system (100). The data structure (101) comprises, for example, processor instructions coded by compressed portions of variable lengths. The compiler system (190) partitions some or all memory lines (115) of the memory (110) into P≧2 partitions, e.g., &agr; and &bgr;, and writes code portions A to a first partition (e.g., &agr;) and second code portions B to a second partition (e.g., &bgr;) of an adjacent memory line (115). The compiler system (190) also stores addresses for some or all of the code portions in, for example, the memory (110). The addresses (260) have pointers (a and b) which indicate start positions (jA and jB) for portions A and B. Optionally, pointer magnitudes distinguish portion-to-pointer relations without the need for further identification bits.

Abstract: Fuses and detect circuits (124) in an integrated circuit memory (100) include a copper fuse (208) and a fuse state detect stage (202) for detecting the open circuit state or the closed circuit state of the fuse (208). The fuse detect circuit (124) provides an output signal corresponding to the state of the fuse and during detecting, limits a voltage drop across the fuse to an absolute value independent of a power supply voltage applied to the integrated circuit memory. The fuse detect circuit (124) operates at power up of the integrated circuit memory (100) and is disabled after the state of the fuse is detected and latched, and the power supply is sufficient for reliable operation of the integrated circuit memory (100). By limiting the voltage drop across a blown copper fuse (208), a potential electro-migration problem is reduced.

Abstract: An arbitration and task switching technique in a real-time multiprocessor data processing system (20) having a common bus (32) and a segmented shared memory (30), where fullness of memory segments of the shared memory (30) is used as a measurement for arbitration and task switching priorities. A bus request mechanism in each of the processors dynamically calculates normalized priority values based on relative needs across the system (20). The normalized priority calculation is based on monitoring the fullness of memory segments of the shared memory (30) associated with each processor (24, 26, 28) of the system (20). Using this normalized priority calculation, the bus access order and bus bandwidth are optimally allocated according to tasks executed by the processors (24, 26, 28). Also, the normalized priority calculation and a preprogrammed threshold is used to control task switching in the multi-processor system (20).

Abstract: A communications system includes multiple processors (14, 16) and a protocol timer (18). The protocol timer (18) controls the timing of events in the communications system and operates autonomously after it is loaded with initial instructions by one of the multiple processors (14, 16). The protocol timer (18) utilizes a frame event table (50) and a macro event table (46, 48) to trigger events and to generate interrupts of the multiple processors (14, 16). By allowing the protocol timer (18) to operate autonomously, the processors (14, 16) are relieved of timing control, and can be powered down when not in use, thus reducing power consumption of the communications system. Also, by using the protocol timer (18) to control the timing of events, software related errors and interrupt latencies are reduced.

Abstract: A data processing system (10) provides a mechanism for choosing when the data stream touch (DST) controller (300) is allowed access to the data cache and MMU (50). The mechanism uses a count value to determine at what point in program execution the DST controller (300) is allowed to interrupt normal load and store accesses. This allows DST prefetches to be optimized for maximum performance of the data processing system (10).