Patents Assigned to Hitachi VLSI Engineering
  • Patent number: 7499340
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device formed on a semiconductor chip includes first memory arrays, a plurality of second memory arrays, a first voltage generator, and first bonding pads. The semiconductor chip is divided into first, second and third rectangle regions and the third rectangle region is arranged between the first rectangle region and the second rectangle region. The first memory arrays are formed in the first rectangle region. The second memory arrays are formed in the second rectangle region. The voltage generator and first bonding pads are arranged in the third rectangle region. The first bonding pads are arranged between the first rectangle region and the voltage generator and no bonding pads are arranged between the voltage generator and the second memory arrays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2009
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Kajigaya, Kazuyuki Miyazawa, Manabu Tsunozaki, Kazuyoshi Oshima, Takashi Yamazaki, Yuji Sakai, Jiro Sawada, Yasunori Yamaguchi, Tetsurou Matsumoto, Shinji Udo, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Hirokazu Saito, Mitsuhiro Takano, Makoto Morino, Sinichi Miyatake, Eiji Miyamoto, Yasuhiro Kasama, Akira Endo, Ryoichi Hori, Jun Etoh, Masashi Horiguchi, Shinichi Ikenaga, Atsushi Kumata
  • Patent number: 7002830
    Abstract: A nonvolatile storage element of a single-layer gate type structure is arranged so that a floating gate is formed of a conductive layer which partly overlaps with a control gate, formed of a diffused layer, and is provided with a barrier layer covering a part of or the whole surface of the floating gate. Nonvolatile storage elements characterized as such are used for redundancy control of defects or change of functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2006
    Assignees: Renesas Technology Corp., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Kenichi Kuroda, Toshifumi Takeda, Hisahiro Moriuchi, Masaki Shirai, Jiroh Sakaguchi, Akinori Matsuo, Shoji Yoshida
  • Patent number: 6898130
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device, in which peripheral circuits are arranged in a cross area of a semiconductor chip composed of the longitudinal center portions and the transverse center portions, and in which memory arrays are arranged in the four regions which are divided by the cross area. This structure in which the peripheral circuits are arranged at the center portion of the chip permits the longest signal transition paths to be shortened to about one half of the chip size to speed up the DRAM which is intended to have a large storage capacity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2005
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Kajigaya, Kazuyuki Miyazawa, Manabu Tsunozaki, Kazuyoshi Oshima, Takashi Yamazaki, Yuji Sakai, Jiro Sawada, Yasunori Yamaguchi, Tetsurou Matsumoto, Shinji Udo, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Hirokazu Saito, Mitsuhiro Takano, Makoto Morino, Sinichi Miyatake, Eiji Miyamoto, Yasuhiro Kasama, Akira Endo, Ryoichi Hori, Jun Etoh, Masashi Horiguchi, Shinichi Ikenaga, Atsushi Kumata
  • Patent number: 6894334
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricating process for forming MISFETs over the principal surface in those active regions of a substrate, which are surrounded by inactive regions formed of an element separating insulating film and channel stopper regions, comprising: the step of for forming a first mask by a non-oxidizable mask and an etching mask sequentially over the principal surface of the active regions of the substrate; the step of forming a second mask on and in self-alignment with the side walls of the first mask by a non-oxidizable mask thinner than the non-oxidizable mask of the first mask and an etching mask respectively; the step of etching the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by using the first mask and the second mask; the step of forming the element separating insulating film over the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by an oxidization using the first mask and the second mask; and the step of forming the channel s
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2005
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Jun Sugiura, Osamu Tsuchiya, Makoto Ogasawara, Fumio Ootsuka, Kazuyoshi Torii, Isamu Asano, Nobuo Owada, Mitsuaki Horiuchi, Tsuyoshi Tamaru, Hideo Aoki, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Seiichirou Shirai, Masakazu Sagawa, Yoshihiro Ikeda, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Toru Kaga, Tomotsugu Shimmyo, Hidetsugu Ogishi, Osamu Kasahara, Hiromichi Enami, Atsushi Wakahara, Hiroyuki Akimori, Sinichi Suzuki, Keisuke Funatsu, Yoshinao Kawasaki, Tunehiko Tubone, Takayoshi Kogano, Ken Tsugane
  • Patent number: 6690603
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having an electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 10, 2004
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6657901
    Abstract: A semiconductor memory device, in which peripheral circuits are arranged in a cross area of a semiconductor chip composed of the longitudinal center portions and the transverse center portions, and in which memory arrays are arranged in the four regions which are divided by the cross area. A benefit of this structure in which the peripheral circuits are arranged at the center portion of the chip, is that the longest signal transmission paths can be shortened to about one half of the chip size to speed up the DRAM which is intended to have a large storage capacity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2003
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Kazuhiko Kajigaya, Kazuyuki Miyazawa, Manabu Tsunozaki, Kazuyoshi Oshima, Takashi Yamazaki, Yuji Sakai, Jiro Sawada, Yasunori Yamaguchi, Tetsurou Matsumoto, Shinji Udo, Hiroshi Yoshioka, Hirokazu Saito, Mitsuhiro Takano, Makoto Morino, Sinichi Miyatake, Eiji Miyamoto, Yasuhiro Kasama, Akira Endo, Ryoichi Hori, Jun Etoh, Masashi Horiguchi, Shinichi Ikenaga, Atsushi Kumata
  • Patent number: 6548847
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricating process for forming MISFETs over the principal surface in those active regions of a substrate, which are surrounded by inactive regions formed of an element separating insulating film and channel stopper regions, comprising: the step of for forming a first mask by a non-oxidizable mask and an etching mask sequentially over the principal surface of the active regions of the substrate; the step of forming a second mask on and in self-alignment with the side walls of the first mask by a non-oxidizable mask thinner than the non-oxidizable mask of the first mask and an etching mask respectively; the step of etching the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by using the first mask and the second mask; the step of forming the element separating insulating film over the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by an oxidization using the first mask and the second mask; and the step of forming the channel s
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2003
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Jun Sugiura, Osamu Tsuchiya, Makoto Ogasawara, Fumio Ootsuka, Kazuyoshi Torii, Isamu Asano, Nobuo Owada, Mitsuaki Horiuchi, Tsuyoshi Tamaru, Hideo Aoki, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Seiichirou Shirai, Masakazu Sagawa, Yoshihiro Ikeda, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Toru Kaga, Tomotsugu Shimmyo, Hidetsugu Ogishi, Osamu Kasahara, Hiromichi Enami, Atsushi Wakahara, Hiroyuki Akimori, Sinichi Suzuki, Keisuke Funatsu, Yoshinao Kawasaki, Tunehiko Tubone, Takayoshi Kogano, Ken Tsugane
  • Patent number: 6501689
    Abstract: A nonvolatile storage element of a single-layer gate type structure is arranged so that a floating gate is formed of a conductive layer which partly overlaps with a control gate, formed of a diffused layer, and is provided with a barrier layer covering a part of or the whole surface of the floating gate. Nonvolatile storage elements characterized as such are used for redundancy control of defects or change of functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Kenichi Kuroda, Toshifumi Takeda, Hisahiro Moriuchi, Masaki Shirai, Jiroh Sakaguchi, Akinori Matsuo, Shoji Yoshida
  • Patent number: 6414878
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having and electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 2, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6400609
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having and electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: June 4, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6343357
    Abstract: A microcomputer MCU adopting the general purpose register method is enabled to have a small program capacity or a high program memory using efficiency and a low system cost, while enjoying the advantage of simplification of the instruction decoding as in the RISC machine having a fixed length instruction format of the prior art, by adopting a fixed length instruction format having a power of 2 but a smaller bit number than that of the maximum data word length fed for instruction execution. And, the control of the coded division is executed by noting the code bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp., Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shumpei Kawasaki, Eiji Sakakibara, Kaoru Fukada, Takanaga Yamazaki, Yasushi Akao, Shiro Baba, Toshimasa Kihara, Keiichi Kurakazu, Takashi Tsukamoto, Shigeki Masumura, Yasuhiro Tawara, Yugo Kashiwagi, Shuya Fujita, Katsuhiko Ishida, Noriko Sawa, Yoichi Asano, Hideaki Chaki, Tadahiko Sugawara, Masahiro Kainaga, Kouki Noguchi, Mitsuru Watabe
  • Patent number: 6342412
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricating process for forming MISFETs over the principal surface in those active regions of a substrate, which are surrounded by inactive regions formed of an element separating insulating film and channel stopper regions, comprising: the step of for forming a first mask by a non-oxidizable mask and an etching mask sequentially over the principal surface of the active regions of the substrate; the step of forming a second mask on and in self-alignment with the side walls of the first mask by a non-oxidizable mask thinner than the non-oxidizable mask of the first mask and an etching mask respectively; the step of etching the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by using the first mask and the second mask; the step of forming the element separating insulating film over the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by an oxidization using the first mask and the second mask; and the step of forming the channel s
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 29, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Jun Sugiura, Osamu Tsuchiya, Makoto Ogasawara, Fumio Ootsuka, Kazuyoshi Torii, Isamu Asano, Nobuo Owada, Mitsuaki Horiuchi, Tsuyoshi Tamaru, Hideo Aoki, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Seiichirou Shirai, Masakazu Sagawa, Yoshihiro Ikeda, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Toru Kaga, Tomotsugu Shimmyo, Hidetsugu Ogishi, Osamu Kasahara, Hiromichi Enami, Atsushi Wakahara, Hiroyuki Akimori, Sinichi Suzuki, Keisuke Funatsu, Yoshinao Kawasaki, Tunehiko Tubone, Takayoshi Kogano, Ken Tsugane
  • Patent number: 6335879
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having and electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 1, 2002
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6272620
    Abstract: A microcomputer MCU adopting the general purpose register method is enabled to have a small program capacity or a high program memory using efficiency and a low system cost, while enjoying the advantage of simplification of the instruction decoding as in the RISC machine having a fixed length instruction format of the prior art, by adopting a fixed length instruction format having a power of 2 but a smaller bit number than that of the maximum data word length fed for instruction execution. And, the control of the coded division is executed by noting the code bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 2000
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2001
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp., Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shumpei Kawasaki, Eiji Sakakibara, Kaoru Fukada, Takanaga Yamazaki, Yasushi Akao, Shiro Baba, Toshimasa Kihara, Keiichi Kurakazu, Takashi Tsukamoto, Shigeki Masumura, Yasuhiro Tawara, Yugo Kashiwagi, Shuya Fujita, Katsuhiko Ishida, Noriko Sawa, Yoichi Asano, Hideaki Chaki, Tadahiko Sugawara, Masahiro Kainaga, Kouki Noguchi, Mitsuru Watabe
  • Patent number: 6253308
    Abstract: A microcomputer CMU adopting the general purpose register method is enabled to have a small program capacity or a high program memory using efficiency and a low system cost, while enjoying the advantage of simplification of the instruction decoding as in the RISC machine having a fixed length instruction format of the prior art, by adopting a fixed length instruction format having a power of 2 but a smaller bit number than that of the maximum data word length fed for instruction execution. And, the control of the coded division is executed by noting the code bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 1998
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2001
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp., Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shumpei Kawasaki, Eiji Sakakibara, Kaoru Fukada, Takanaga Yamazaki, Yasushi Akao, Shiro Baba, Toshimasa Kihara, Keiichi Kurakazu, Takashi Tsukamoto, Shigeki Masumura, Yasuhiro Tawara, Yugo Kashiwagi, Shuya Fujita, Katsuhiko Ishida, Noriko Sawa, Yoichi Asano, Hideaki Chaki, Tadahiko Sugawara, Masahiro Kainaga, Kouki Noguchi, Mitsuru Watabe
  • Patent number: 6181598
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having and electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2001
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6169324
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a semiconductor integrated circuit device fabricating process for forming MISFETs over the principal surface in those active regions of a substrate, which are surrounded by inactive regions formed of an element separating insulating film and channel stopper regions, comprising: the step of for forming a first mask by a non-oxidizable mask and an etching mask sequentially over the principal surface of the active regions of the substrate; the step of forming a second mask on and in self-alignment with the side walls of the first mask by a non-oxidizable mask thinner than the non-oxidizable mask of the first mask and an etching mask respectively; the step of etching the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by using the first mask and the second mask; the step of forming the element separating insulating film over the principal surface of the inactive regions of the substrate by an oxidization using the first mask and the second mask; and the step of forming the channel s
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1999
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2001
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Jun Sugiura, Osamu Tsuchiya, Makoto Ogasawara, Fumio Ootsuka, Kazuyoshi Torii, Isamu Asano, Nobuo Owada, Mitsuaki Horiuchi, Tsuyoshi Tamaru, Hideo Aoki, Nobuhiro Otsuka, Seiichirou Shirai, Masakazu Sagawa, Yoshihiro Ikeda, Masatoshi Tsuneoka, Toru Kaga, Tomotsugu Shimmyo, Hidetsugu Ogishi, Osamu Kasahara, Hiromichi Enami, Atsushi Wakahara, Hiroyuki Akimori, Sinichi Suzuki, Keisuke Funatsu, Yoshinao Kawasaki, Tunehiko Tubone, Takayoshi Kogano, Ken Tsugane
  • Patent number: 6166953
    Abstract: A semiconductor device having and electrically erasable and programmable nonvolatile memory, for example, a rewritable nonvolatile memory including memory cells arranged in rows and columns and disposed to facilitate both flash erasure as well as selective erasure of individual units of plural memory cells. The semiconductor device which functions as a microcomputer chip also has a processing unit and includes an input terminal for receiving an operation mode signal for switching the microcomputer between a first operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of a processing unit and a second operation mode in which the flash memory is rewritten under control of separate writing circuit externally connectable to the microcomputer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2000
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corporation
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Matsubara, Naoki Yashiki, Shiro Baba, Takashi Ito, Hirofumi Mukai, Masanao Sato, Masaaki Terasawa, Kenichi Kuroda, Kazuyoshi Shiba
  • Patent number: 6131154
    Abstract: Herein disclosed is a microcomputer MCU adopting the general purpose register method. The microcomputer is enabled to have a small program capacity or a high program memory using efficiency and a low system cost, while enjoying the advantage of simplification of the instruction decoding as in the RISC machine having a fixed length instruction format of the prior art, by adopting a fixed length instruction format having a power of 2 but a smaller bit number than that of the maximum data word length fed to instruction execution means. And, the control of the coded division is executed by noting the code bits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2000
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp., Hitachi Microcomputer System, Ltd.
    Inventors: Shumpei Kawasaki, Eiji Sakakibara, Kaoru Fukada, Takanaga Yamazaki, Yasushi Akao, Shiro Baba, Toshimasa Kihara, Keiichi Kurakazu, Takashi Tsukamoto, Shigeki Masumura, Yasuhiro Tawara, Yugo Kashiwagi, Shuya Fujita, Katsuhiko Ishida, Noriko Sawa, Yoichi Asano, Hideaki Chaki, Tadahiko Sugawara, Masahiro Kainaga, Kouki Noguchi, Mitsuru Watabe
  • Patent number: RE37996
    Abstract: One object of the present invention is to provide the reduced projection exposure method which enables the exposure of various and fine patterns in manufacturing process of semiconductor devices or semiconductor integrated circuit devices. Structure of the present invention to attain the above object is to carry out the reduced projection exposure using a phase shift mask provided with a prescribed correction pattern on the end of the mask pattern domain of a constant mode or the boundary of the mask pattern domain of plural modes. According to this structure, as the end effects etc. are canceled by the correction pattern, the various and fine patterns can be exposed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: February 18, 2003
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi VLSI Engineering Corp.
    Inventors: Fumio Mizuno, Noboru Moriuchi, Seiichiro Shirai, Masayuki Morita