Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Daniel P. Morris
  • Patent number: 6333141
    Abstract: The invention relates to a process for forming an integrated circuit device comprising (i) a substrate; (ii) metallic circuit lines positioned on the substrate and (iii) a dielectric material positioned on the circuit lines. The dielectric material comprises porous organic polysilica.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 8, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth Raymond Carter, Richard Anthony Dipietro, Craig Jon Hawker, James Lupton Hedrick, Victor YeeWay Lee, Robert Dennis Miller, Willi Volksen, Do Yeung Yoon
  • Patent number: 6334109
    Abstract: A system and method is disclosed for producing an advertisement that is personalized to a particular user for a current transaction and is presented to such user at the point of sale or transaction terminal. The transaction terminal produces current transaction data that includes customer identity, and goods/services being purchased and their prices. the current transaction data is sent to an advertisement server via a network such as the Internet. The advertisement server uses a user database, a goods database and an advertisement database to locate an existing advertisement or create a new advertisement that is personalized to the particular user. The personalized advertisement is sent to the transaction terminal for presentation to the user by displaying or printing on a sales receipt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dimitri Kanevsky, Alexander Zlatsin
  • Patent number: 6332270
    Abstract: A high density integrated test probe and method of fabrication is described. A group of wires are ball bonded to contact locations on the surface of a fan out substrate. The wires are sheared off leaving a stub, the end of which is flattened by an anvil. Before flattening a sheet of material having a group of holes is arranged for alignment with the group of stubs is disposed over the stubs. The sheet of material supports the enlarged tip. The substrate with stubs form a probe which is moved into engagement with contact locations on a work piece such as a drip or packaging substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Samuel Beaman, Keith Edward Fogel, Paul Alfred Lauro, Maurice H. Norcott, Da-Yuan Shih, George Frederick Walker
  • Patent number: 6332693
    Abstract: An illumination apparatus including: at least two light sources, in which each of the light sources produce independent light beams; a controller for sequentially driving each of the light sources at a high power above their respective maximum rated power, to produce a respective light beam for each light source, and for leaving the remaining light sources at a low power below their respective maximum rated power, such that the time-average of the high and low power levels are set to a predetermined value for each of the light sources; and a combiner and director for sequentially combining each of the light beams from their respective light sources while being driven at high power into a common output beam with a fixed direction. Various combiner and directors are disclosed including tiltable mirrors under the control of the controller as well as optical systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 25, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Derek Brian Dove, Alan Edward Rosenbluth, Kei-Hsiung Yang
  • Patent number: 6331356
    Abstract: Electronic devices having patterned electrically conductive polymers providing electrical connection thereto and methods of fabrication thereof are described. Liquid crystal display cells are described having at least one of the electrodes providing a bias across the liquid crystal material formed from a patterned electrically conductive polymer. Thin film transistors having patterned electrically conductive polymers as source drain and gate electrodes are described. Light emitting diodes having anode and coated regions formed from patterned electrically conductive polymers are described. Methods of patterning using a resist mask; patterning using a patterned metal layer; patterning the metal layer using a resist; and patterning the electrically conductive polymer directly to form electrodes and anode and cathode regions are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Marie Angelopoulos, Christos Dimitrios Dimitrakopoulos, Bruce Kenneth Furman, Teresita Ordonez Graham, Shui-Chih Alan Lien
  • Patent number: 6329827
    Abstract: Connectors for electronic devices are described. The connector is formed by ball bonding a plurality of wires to contact locations on a fan out substrate surface. The wires are cut off leaving stubs. A patterned polymer sheet having electrical conductor patterns therein is disposed over the stubs which extend through holes in the sheet. The ends of the wires are flattened to remit the polymer sheet in place. The wire is connected to an electrical conductor on the polymer sheet which is converted to a contact pad on the polymer sheet. A second wire is ball bonded to the pad on the polymer sheet and cut to leave a second stub. The polymer sheet is laser cut so that each second stub is free to move independently of the other second studs. The ends of the second stubs are disposed against contact locations of an electronic device, such as an FC chip, to test the electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 11, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Samuel Beaman, Keith Edward Fogel, Paul Alfred Lauro, Maurice Heathcote Norcott, Da-Yuan Shih
  • Patent number: 6326237
    Abstract: The invention is an encapsulated circuit assembly including a chip; a substrate; at least one solder joint, wherein the solder joint spans between the chip and the substrate forming an electrically conductive connection between the chip and the substrate; and an encapsulant formed adjacent the solder joint, wherein the encapsulant comprises a hyperbranched polymer formed by the reaction of a monomer of the formula: (A)nRB, wherein A is a coupling group reactive with B, B is a coupling group reactive with A, n is greater than 1, and R is a group selected from the group consisting of an aromatic group, an aliphatic group, and mixtures thereof Also disclosed is a method of encapsulating a circuit assembly using the encapsulant of the invention.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth Raymond Carter, Craig Jon Hawker, James Lupton Hedrick, Robert Dennis Miller, Michael Anthony Gaynes, Stephen Leslie Buchwalter
  • Patent number: 6327421
    Abstract: The invention supports visual fast-forward play and rewind at multiple speeds using a single ancillary data stream. The storage required by this data stream is approximately the same as the storage required by a single ancillary data stream used in conventional single speed fast-forward and rewind schemes. The method of the invention includes the following steps. A bitstream of the original sequence of MPEG compressed pictures is stored for normal play. Then a sub-sequence of the original sequence, consisting of every n-th picture, is compressed as I-pictures, while ensuring that all pictures in the compressed stream have equal numbers of bits. This is the ancillary stream. A client request for fast-forward play is responded to by transmitting a subset of I-pictures from the ancillary stream. A fast-reverse play request is satisfied in the same manner except that the I-frames are transmitted in the reverse order.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 4, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Prasoon Tiwari, Eric Viscito
  • Patent number: 6322685
    Abstract: A method using an electrically nonconductive cathode chamber with at least part of its wall area rendered permeable to ions and electrolytic solutions; premixing a predetermined quantity of an electroconductive powder and a first electroplating solution; filling the cathode chamber with the solution/powder mixture and a plurality of electroconductive spheres; disposing an electroconductive cathode ball connection in contact with the spheres and powder particles; securing the cathode chamber to a cap which is part of a rotary assembly that allows the rotation of the cathode chamber about its axis without twisting the aforementioned cathode ball connection positioned within said chamber; placing the cathode chamber within an anode chamber containing a second electroplating solution and an anode; rotating the cathode chamber on its axis using the rotary assembly; biasing the anode with a positive voltage in reference to the cathode ball connection causing the electroplating of a metallic coating on the surface o
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 27, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Sung Kwon Kang, Sampath Purushothaman
  • Patent number: 6319650
    Abstract: An improved, aqueous base developable, high resolution photoresist composition for use in deep UV and compatable with high base strength aqueous developers is disclosed. The composition of the present invention comprises of a phenolic functional methacrylate polymer resin, a crosslinker selected from glycoluril derivatives capable of reacting with there resins under acid catalysis, a photoacid generator and an organic solvent. The composition of the present invention is particularly useful for production of negative tone images of high resolution (less than 0.125 micrometer).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 20, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jeffrey Donald Gelorme, Ali Afzali-Ardakani, Teresita Ordonez Graham, Laura Louise Kosbar
  • Patent number: 6316167
    Abstract: A lithographic structure and method of fabrication and use thereof having a plurality of layers at least one of which is a an RCHX layer which comprises a material having structural formula R:C:H:X, wherein R is selected from the group consisting of Si, Ge, B, Sn, Fe, Ti and combinations thereof and wherein X is not present or is selected from the group consisting of one or more of O, N, S, and F and a layer of an energy active material. The RCHX layers are useful as hardmask layers, anti-reflection layers and hardmask anti-reflection layers. The RCHX layer can be vapor-deposited and patterned by patterning the energy active material and transferring the pattern to the RCHX layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Marie Angelopoulos, Katherina Babich, Alfred Grill, Scott David Halle, Arpan Pravin Mahorowala, Vishnubhai Vitthalbhai Patel
  • Patent number: 6317703
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing a composite acoustic signal to reconstruct an acoustic signal that substantially matches a selected one of a plurality of sources. A plurality of microphones positioned at different spatial locations detect. variations in sound pressure level resulting from the activity of a plurality of acoustic sources at different locations. The outputs of the microphones are sampled and digitized, and the resulting digital waveform from each microphone is provided as an input to a corresponding filter bank. The outputs of the filter banks are input to a comparison unit. A comparison control unit generates “signature” information that characterizes each source with respect to the microphones. The comparison unit receives “signature” information of a selected source from the comparison control unit and provides an output to a synthesizer unit which produces a synthesized digital waveform for the selected source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 13, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Ralph Linsker
  • Patent number: 6313905
    Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus and a method for defining a pattern on a substrate using a shadow masking technique. Said apparatus comprises a flexible member having a movable portion and at least one aperture. The flexible member is positioned in operation above the substrate thereby acting as a shadow mask. The apparatus further comprises a support for the substrate, distance-controlling means for controlling the distance between said movable portion and said substrate, and an actuator for moving the flexible member and substrate relative to each other parallel to a surface of the substrate. The apparatus further comprises an emission source which emits materials, electrons or light and which aims through the shadow mask at the substrate where the pattern is defined. Such a pattern might be employed in micromechanic, microoptic or microelectronic devices, for example. The described apparatus may be implemented using the AFM principal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Juergen P. Brugger, James K. Gimzewski, Pierre L. Guéret, Roland Luethi-Oetterli, Räto R. Schlittler, Mark E. Welland
  • Patent number: 6313879
    Abstract: When short MPEG2 data transfer streams, such as those used for commercials, are sequentially distributed within a short period of time, a decoder method synchronizes the transfer and prevents accumulation of data in a buffer and data losses. The synchronization method extracts sync data originating at the transmission source from a received data stream; acquires sync data for a decoder based on a reference clock; compares the sync data originating at the transmission source with the sync data for the decoder in order to sequentially obtain control values, sequentially updates the frequency of the reference clock for transfer synchronization for the received data stream; determines whether or not a data stream that differs from the received data stream has been received; and employs, when a different data stream has been received, the reference clock obtained when the received data stream has been received, to initiate transfer synchronization for the different data stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroaki Kubo, Noriaki Asamoto
  • Patent number: 6312620
    Abstract: Deaggregated substituted and unsubstitued polyparaphenylenes, polyparaphenylevevinyles, polyanilines, polyazines, polythiophenes, poly-p-phenylene sulfides, polyfuranes, polypyrroles, polyselenophene, polyacetylenes formed from soluble precursors and combinations thereof and copolymers thereof and methods of fabrication are described. The deaggregated polymer molecules when subsequently doped show higher electrical conductivity. Agents such as lithium chloride, m-cresol and nonylphenol are used to deaggregate the polymer molecules. The deaggregating agents can be added prior to or during doping the molecules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Marie Angelopoulos, Bruce K. Furman
  • Patent number: 6300164
    Abstract: A socketable ball grid array structure is disclosed which comprises mechanically rigid (compared to solder alloys) balls coated with noble contact metals joined to the chip carrier terminals by means of a novel electrically conducting adhesive. Because of the nature of the filler that includes conducting particles with a fusible coating and the appropriate selection of the polymer resin used in the adhesive, the balls are attached to the module in a compliant and resilient manner while leaving the majority of the bottom surface of the balls pristine. The array of balls can therefore be plugged into mating sockets in a printed circuit board forming a demountable contact. This facilitates easy removal of the socketable BGA from a board for repair or upgrade purposes as well as allows ease of plugging and unplugging of these BGA's into test and burn-in boards.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2000
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Anson J. Call, Stephen Anthony DeLaurentis, Shaji Farooq, Sung Kwon Kang, Sampath Purushothaman, Kathleen Ann Stalter
  • Patent number: 6300780
    Abstract: A high density test probe for testing a high density and high performance integrated circuits in wafer form or as discrete chips. The test probe is formed from a dense array of elongated electrical conductors which are embedded in an compliant or high modulus elastomeric material. A standard packaging substrate, such as a ceramic integrated circuit chip packaging substrate is used to provide a space transformer. Wires are bonded to an array of contact pads on the surface of the space transformer. The space transfer formed from a multilayer integrated circuit chip packaging substrate. The wires are as dense as the contact location array. A mold is disposed surrounding the array of outwardly projecting wires. A liquid elastomer is disposed in the mold to fill the spaces between the wires. The elastomer is cured and the mold is removed, leaving an array of wires disposed in the elastomer and in electrical contact with the space transformer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Samuel Beaman, Keith Edward Fogel, Paul Alfred Lauro, Maurice Heathcote Norcott, Da-Yuan Shih, George Frederick Walker
  • Patent number: 6297559
    Abstract: A new interconnection scheme of a ball grid array (BGA) module is disclosed where a solder ball is connected to the BGA module by use of an electrically conducting adhesive The electrically conducting adhesive can be a mixture comprising a polymer resin, no-clean solder flux, a plurality of electrically conducting particles with an electrically conducting fusible coating and others. The solder balls in a BGA module can also be connected to a printed circuit board by use of another electrically conductive adhesive which can be joined at a lower temperature than the first joining to the BGA module. Additionally, an electrically conducting adhesive can be formed into electrically conducting adhesive bumps which interconnect an integrated circuit device to the BGA module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Anson J. Call, Stephen Anthony DeLaurentis, Shaji Farooq, Sung Kwon Kang, Sampath Purushothaman, Kathleen Ann Stalter
  • Patent number: 6295729
    Abstract: A method is described having the steps of providing a surface having a plurality of wire bondable locations; wire bonding a wire to each of the wire bondable locations using a wire capillary tool; controlling the position of the capillary tool with respect to the substrate; after forming a wire bond of the wire to the wire bondable location moving the capillary tool relative to the surface as the capillary tool is moved away from the surface to form a wire having a predetermined shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Brian Samuel Beaman, Keith Edward Fogel, Paul Alfred Lauro, Da-Yuan Shih
  • Patent number: 6295128
    Abstract: In alignment of superpositioned objects on opposing substrates accuracy and simplicity is achieved through relative movement of the substrates responsive to an image of one object reflected from the surface of the opposite substrate. Alignment of mating fine pitch conductors and pads for bonding is achieved by observation of the reflection of one conductor or pad in the surface of the opposite substrate and relatively moving the substrates to eliminate the reflection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: September 25, 2001
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Raymond Robert Horton, Chandrasekhar Narayan, Michael Jon Palmer