Abstract: A method and apparatus for forming connections within a semiconductor device is disclosed. The semiconductor device incorporates a contact bridge between transistor contacts in close proximity. The contact bridge comprises a plurality of metal pillars each having a lower end in electrical contact with first and second transistor elements, respectively; one or more intermediate metal pillars disposed between and in electrical contact with an upper end of the metal pillars; and one or more separation regions of dielectric disposed below the intermediate metal pillar and between the lower ends of the first and second metal pillars.

Abstract: A trench capacitor is filled with a set of two or more storage plates by consecutively depositing layers of dielectric and conductor and making contact to the ground plates by etching an aperture through the plates to the buried plate in the substrate and connecting the one or more ground plate to the substrate; the charge storage plates are connected at the top of the capacitor by blocking the end of the first plate during the formation of the second ground plate and exposing the material of the first storage plate during deposition of the second storage plate.

Abstract: A method of fabricating a semiconductor device structure, includes: providing a substrate, providing an electrode on the substrate, forming a recess in the electrode, the recess having an opening, disposing a small grain semiconductor material within the recess, covering the opening to contain the small grain semiconductor material, within the recess, and then annealing the resultant structure.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods for forming semiconductor FET devices having reduced gate edge leakage current by using plasma or thermal nitridation and low-temperature plasma re-oxidation processes post gate etch.

Abstract: A method of designing a clock tree in an integrated circuit combines steps of making a list of all clock sinks; positioning a temporary reference insertion point (TIP); grouping the sinks together with structured clock buffers (SCBs) in a set of levels; and moving the SCBs to improve symmetry of the tree. The SCBs may be of several sizes and may be positioned horizontally or vertically and moved within limits to permit the program to calculate a complete tree.

Abstract: The present invention is directed generally to client-server, client-host, or server-server communications in a distributed computer network and, more particularly, to enhancing of resource adapters adapted to facilitate such communications. The present invention is directed to enhancing resource adapters that work with screens. Aspects of the invention, which may be incorporated into or communicate with existing resource adapters, provide a standard screen record for manipulating data on a screen image. The standard screen record provides support for instances where prior knowledge of the screen format or layout is known and for those instances where there is no knowledge of the screen format. Additionally, the standard screen record provides detailed data describing all attributes of a field and of the screen image itself. Additionally, the invention also provides easy access to the field attribute data.

Abstract: An integrated circuit is provided having a plurality of data transmitters, including a plurality of default data transmitters for transmitting data from a plurality of data sources and at least one redundancy data transmitter. A plurality of connection elements are provided having a first, low impedance connecting state and having a second, high impedance, disconnecting state. The connection elements are operable to disconnect a failing data transmitter from a corresponding output signal line and to connect the redundancy data transmitter to that output signal line in place of the failing data transmitter. In one preferred form, the connection elements include a fuse and an antifuse. In another form, the connection elements include micro-electromechanical (MEM) switches. The connecting elements preferably present the low impedance connecting state at frequencies which include signal switching frequencies above about 500 MHz.

Abstract: A method for making a semiconductor device structure includes producing a substrate having formed thereon a gate with spacers, respective source and drain regions adjacent to the gate and an; disposing a first metallic layer on the gate with spacers, and the source and drain regions, disposing a second metallic layer on the first metallic layer; doping the first metallic layer with a first dopant through a portion of the second metal layer disposed over the second gate with spacers; and then heating the intermediate structure to a temperature and for a time sufficient to form a silicide of the first metallic layer. This first layer is, for example, Ni while the second layer is, for example, TiN.

Abstract: A semiconductor device structure includes at least two field effect transistors formed on same substrate, the first field effect transistor includes a spacer having a first width, the second field effect transistor includes a compressive spacer having a second width, the first width being different than said second width. Preferably, the first width is narrower than the second width. A tensile stress dielectric film forms a barrier etch stop layer over the transistors.

Abstract: A method and a system to adapt the load balancing of the incoming traffic over the planes of a parallel packet switch (PPS) on the basis of the monitoring of requests and acknowledgments exchanged between ingress port adapters and arrays of collapsed virtual output queues (cVOQ) situated within the plane switch cores is disclosed. According to the invention, at least one counter is associated, in each ingress port-adapter, to each individual switching plane or device to be monitored. Each of these counters is incremented when a request is sent to the corresponding individual switching plane or device and decremented when an acknowledgment is received from this individual switching plane or device. When the range of values taken by the counters of a same ingress port-adapter reaches a predetermined threshold, less (or none) incoming traffic is further transmitted to the individual switching plane or device associated to the higher value counter. An alarm signal is possibly raised too e.g.

Abstract: A trench capacitor with an isolation collar in a semiconductor substrate where the substrate adjacent to the isolation collar is free of dopants caused by auto-doping. The method of fabricating the trench capacitor includes the steps of forming a trench in the semiconductor substrate; depositing a dielectric layer on a sidewall of the trench; filling the trench with a first layer of undoped polysilicon; etching away the first layer of undoped polysilicon and the dielectric layer from an upper section of the trench whereby the semiconductor substrate is exposed at the sidewall in the upper section of the trench; forming an isolation collar layer on the sidewall in the upper section of the trench; and filling the trench with a second layer of doped polysilicon.

Abstract: A self-synchronising data bus analyser comprising a generator LFSR, a receiver LFSR and a comparator wherein the generator LFSR generates a first data set which is transmitted through a data bus to the comparator; and wherein the comparator compares the first data set with a second data set generated by the receiver LFSR and adjusts the receiver LFSR until the second data set is substantially the same as the first data set.

Abstract: A semiconductor device structure, includes a PMOS device 200 and an NMOS device 300 disposed on a substrate 1,2, the PMOS device including a compressive layer 6 stressing an active region of the PMOS device, the NMOS device including a tensile layer 9 stressing an active region of the NMOS device, wherein the compressive layer includes a first dielectric material, the tensile layer includes a second dielectric material, and the PMOS and NMOS devices are FinFET devices 200, 300.

Abstract: A system and method of detecting a fault in a transmission link are provided which includes providing a selectable reference level according to one of a direct current (DC) mode threshold and an alternating current (AC) mode threshold, wherein the DC mode threshold is a fixed potential and the AC mode threshold varies with time. An input signal arriving from the transmission link is compared to one of the DC mode threshold and the AC mode threshold to determine whether a fault is present in the transmission link.

Abstract: P-type MOSFETs (PMOSFETs) are formed by encapsulating the gate with an insulator and depositing a germanium containing layer outside the sidewalls, then diffusing the germanium into the silicon-on-insulator layer or bulk silicon by annealing or by oxidizing to form graded embedded silicon-germanium source-drain and/or Extension (geSiGe-SDE). For SOI devices, the geSiGe-SDE is allowed to reach the buried insulator to maximize the stress in the channel of SOI devices, which is beneficial for ultra-thin SOI devices. Graded germanium profiles provide a method to optimize stress in order to enhance device performance. The geSiGe-SDE creates a compressive stress in the horizontal direction (parallel to the gate dielectric surface) and tensile stress in the vertical direction (normal to the gate dielectric surface) in the channel of the PMOSFET, therebyforming a structure that enhances PMOSFET performance.

Abstract: A semiconductor device structure includes at least two field effect transistors formed on same substrate, the first field effect transistor includes a spacer having a first width, the second field effect transistor includes a compressive spacer having a second width, the first width being different than said second width. Preferably, the first width is narrower than the second width. A tensile stress dielectric film forms a barrier etch stop layer over the transistors.

Abstract: A micro electro-mechanical system (MEMS) variable capacitor is described, wherein movable comb electrodes of opposing polarity are fabricated simultaneously on the same substrate and are independently actuated. The electrodes are formed in an interdigitated fashion to maximize capacitance. The MEMS variable capacitor includes CMOS manufacturing steps in combination with elastomeric material selectively used in areas under greatest stress to ensure that the varactor will not fail as a result of stresses that may result in the separation of dielectric material from the conductive elements. The combination of a CMOS process with the conducting elastomeric material between vias increases the overall sidewall area, which provides increased capacitance density.

Abstract: A transition detection, validation and memorization (TDVM) circuit detects the position of a transition in a stream of serially transmitted binary data (bits) that are over sampled and generates a control signal indicating which sampled signal represents the best data. The incoming data stream is over sampled by the n phases of a multiple phase clock signal. Then n over sampled signals are fed into the TDVM circuit which includes a first section for detecting the transition at the positions of two consecutive sampled signals according to a specific signal processing, a second section for validating the transition position, and a third section for memorizing the validated transition position and generating a control signal that is used to recover the data.

Abstract: To supply selection signals to multiplexed pixels efficiently. For a period from time t0 to time t2, first, during a period from time t0 to time t1, a pixel electrode A11 is driven by selecting scan lines Gn+1 and Gn+2, and next, during a period from time t1 to time t2, a pixel electrode B11 is driven by selecting only the scan line Gn+1. Moreover, during the period from time t1 to time t2, scan lines Gn+3 and Gn+4 are also selected, and thus a pixel electrode A12 is driven. After time t2, at least one of the scan lines Gn+3 and Gn+4 is not selected before the pixel electrode A12 is driven by selecting both of the scan lines Gn+3 and Gn+4 during a period from time t4 to time t5. Accordingly, the pixel electrode A12 can be preliminarily charged during the period from time t1 to time t2 and can maintain a potential preliminarily applied thereto until the pixel electrode A12 is driven during the period from time t4 to time t5.

Abstract: An ESD LUBISTOR structure based on FINFET technology employs a vertical fin (a thin vertical member containing the source, drain and body of the device) in alternatives with and without a gate. The gate may be connected to the external electrode being protected to make a self-activating device or may be connected to a reference voltage. The device may be used in digital or analog circuits.