Abstract: An apparatus for demodulating a digital video broadcast signal comprising data modulated on a multiplicity of spaced carrier frequencies. A transform device may analyze the digital broadcast signal to provide a series of symbol values for each of the multiplicity of carrier frequencies. An automatic frequency control device may control the frequency of the series of symbol values in dependence on a common phase error signal from the series of symbol values. First and second common phase error correction (CPE) devices may receive common phase error signals, for correcting the signal values from the transform device. A channel equalization device may compensate for communication channel impairments for receiving directly the phase error corrected signals from the first CPE device.

Abstract: A highly integrated, single chip computer system having not only a central-processing unit (CPU) but also specialized coprocessors. The specialized coprocessors, for example, enable the single chip computer system to be reasonably sized, yet perform high quality video (e.g., MPEG-2) and graphics operations (e.g., three-dimensional graphics). The single chip computer system offers improved performance of video and graphics operations, resource scheduling and security. The improved security offered by the single chip computer system enables program code or data stored external to the single chip computer system to be encrypted so as to hinder unauthorized access, while internal to the single chip computer system the program code or data is decrypted. The single chip computer system is particularly suitable for video game consoles having high quality graphics and/or video, digital video disk (DVD) players, and set-top boxes.

Abstract: Provided is a method and composition for obtaining consistent alignment mark profiles with both detectibiliy and detection accuracy for use in conjunction with CMP planarization processes in semiconductor fabrication. The method involves physical vapor deposition of metal over an angled, metal-lined alignment mark trench in the surface of a semiconductor wafer following wafer planarization by CMP. The shape of the trench creates a shadowing effect which produces minimal deposition in the angled region of the trench and overcomes asymmetric metal loss due to attack from slurry accumulating in the trench during CMP. The result is the formation of a reliable and reproducible alignment mark.

Abstract: An integrated circuit structure is provided with a local interconnect layer and a first metal interconnect layer which are both capable of bridging over underlying conductive regions. The structure comprises a first dielectric layer formed to a height or thickness equal to or preferably exceeding the height of the highest conductive regions of the underlying integrated circuit devices; a second dielectric layer formed above the first dielectric layer; one or more local interconnects formed in the second dielectric layer; and a thin third dielectric layer formed over the second dielectric layer and the local interconnects therein. The thin third dielectric layer has a thickness not exceeding about 2000 Å, and preferably ranging from about 1000 Å to about 1500 Å. A first layer of metal interconnects is formed over the thin third dielectric layer.

Abstract: An apparatus for dynamic termination logic of bi-directional data buses and methods of operating the same result in bi-directional data buses with improved data transfer performance. The bi-directional data bus for wire-or data transfers comprises a first end-driver coupled to a first end of the data bus configured to drive the first end of the data bus with a first signal. The second end-driver coupled to the second end of the data bus is configured to dynamically terminate the first signal from the first end-driver.

Abstract: Methods for using the polysilicon layer to route the cells in the ASIC are disclosed. The poly layer of an IC chip is used for routing chip interconnects with minimal impact on the chip performance by selecting nets in the IC chip based on a predetermined or a desired qualification. A maximum allowable length of the poly layer to be used for chip interconnects is determined based on the intended technology of the chip. A filtering algorithm filters the netlist to provide a set of candidate nets that are suitable for poly layer routing based on the predetermined or desired qualification. A routing tool routes the selected nets that have been selected by the filtering algorithm by using the poly layer. Some of the poly layer routings are further rejected by a post processing step.

Abstract: A method for improving the accuracy of quiescent current testing by reducing reliance on absolute quiescent current test limits. Initially, the device under test is placed into a static DC state in a traditional manner. Quiescent current is then measured with the power supply to the device set to a nominal operating voltage. Next, a fixed voltage lower than the nominal power supply voltage is applied to the integrated circuit in order to reduce the quiescent current consumed by the device. An additional quiescent current measurement is taken. The difference in quiescent current between the first and second measurements is then calculated. Additional quiescent current measurement(s) are also taken at increasing lower supply voltages. The differences in quiescent currents between each of these measurements is also calculated. After a sufficient number of measurements have been gathered, the resulting difference values are examined to determine the “linearity” of the quiescent current reduction.

Abstract: A system and method for decoding an MPEG video bitstream comprising several macroblocks of data is disclosed. The system comprises a macroblock core (MBCORE) which processes video bitstream data and computes discrete cosine transform data corresponding to the processed video bitstream, and a parser which parses the video bitstream macroblocks into multiple data blocks used in subsequent stages of decoding. The system further includes a transformation/motion compensation core (TMCCORE) which is divided into multiple stages. The TMCCORE includes an IDCT first stage, an intermediate memory (transpose RAM), and an IDCT second stage. The IDCT first stage passes data to memory and the IDCT second stage receives data from memory. The IDCT first stage has the ability to operate on a first data block while the second stage simultaneously operates on a second data block. The TMCCORE receives the discrete cosine transform data from the MBCORE and calculates and reconstructs a frame therefrom using motion compensation.

Abstract: Techniques for fabricating integrated circuits having devices with gate oxides having different thicknesses and a high nitrogen content include forming the gate oxides at pressures at least as high as 2.0 atmospheres in an ambient of a nitrogen-containing gas. In one implementation, a substrate includes a first region for forming a first device having a gate oxide of a first thickness and a second region for forming a second device having a gate oxide of a second different thickness. A first oxynitride layer is formed on the first and second regions in an ambient comprising a nitrogen-containing gas at a pressure in a range of about 10 to about 15 atmospheres. A portion of the first oxynitride layer is removed to expose a surface of the substrate on the second region. Subsequently, a second oxynitride is formed over the first and second regions in an ambient comprising a nitrogen-containing gas at a pressure in a range of about 10 to about 15 atmospheres to form the first and second gate oxides.

Abstract: Provided are an apparatus and method for concurrently pad conditioning and wafer buffing on a single station of a CMP apparatus. In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus includes a two-sided conditioning/buffing device having a pad conditioner on one side and a buff pad on the other. In operation, the device is inserted between a polishing pad and a polished wafer following CMP. A differential velocity is developed between the pad conditioner and the polishing pad, for example, by contacting the pad conditioner with a rotating or orbiting polishing pad. Concurrently, the polished wafer is contacted with the buff pad on the other side of the device, and a differential velocity is developed between the two, for example, by rotating the wafer, so that the wafer is buffed.

Abstract: An emitter follower circuit with feed forward compensation includes an emitter follower having an emitter follower input and an emitter follower output. An auxiliary emitter follower has an auxiliary emitter follower input and an auxiliary emitter follower output. The emitter follower input is coupled to the auxiliary emitter follower input and the emitter follower output is capacitively coupled to the auxiliary emitter follower output. In this manner, ringing of the emitter follower circuit with feed forward compensation is reduced by the capacitive coupling of the auxiliary emitter follower output to the emitter follower output.

Abstract: A multi-port semiconductor memory includes first and second data ports and a plurality of memory cells arranged in rows and columns. Each column comprises first and second pairs of complementary bit lines, which are coupled to each of the memory cells in that column. The first pair of bit lines cross one another between every N and N+1 of the memory cells the column, where N=2M and M is an integer variable greater than zero. A data inversion circuit is coupled between the first pair of bit lines and the first data port, which selectively inverts the first pair of bit lines as a function of the first port's (M+1)th row address input bit only, as measured from the least significant row address input bit.

Abstract: The present invention optimizes bus bandwidth utilization in an environment where bus accesses range in size from single word to multi-word burst accesses by prefetching and caching additional words when responding to a single word access request so that if the word is not found in cache, the single word request is converted into a multi-word fetch request. The present invention includes receiving a read request from a client; checking the contents of a cache to determine whether the cache contains information sought in the read request and returning the information from the cache if a cache hit results. If a cache miss results, a bus transaction is initiated by fetching a block of memory containing the information from a memory store, sending the information to the client, and caching the additional remaining information included with the fetched block of memory. The present invention may be implemented using a bus interface having a cache, and which is responsive to a read request received from the client.

Abstract: An apparatus for recovering information bits from in-phase and quadrature components of a stream of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) trellis code modulation (TCM) signals is disclosed. Each signal has an in-phase component and a quadrature component. The in-phase component includes a decoded bit and a plurality of uncoded in-phase bits and the quadrature component includes a decoded quadrature bit and a plurality of uncoded quadrature bits. The apparatus includes a reencode and puncturing circuitry, an inverse mapping circuitry, and a recovery circuitry. The reencode and puncture circuitry is adapted to receive the in-phase and quadrature components of a QAM TCM signal for encoding the decoded in-phase and quadrature bits. The reencode and puncture circuitry punctures the encoded in-phase bit with the uncoded in-phase bits to generate an in-phase component index.

Abstract: A method and apparatus provides an improved optical storage disk player. An improved method and apparatus for obtaining a tracking error signal for an optical disk player is disclosed which is general across the various data formats found in CD audio disks, CD-ROMs, and digital video disks. The present invention uses a photodetector with at least four active areas to sense the reflected laser beam. A differential amplitude tracking error signal is generated by comparing the signal strength in the different active areas.

Abstract: The invention comprises a process for forming a dielectric film having a compressive stress exhibited in the layers deposited onto an integrated circuit structure. This process includes depositing a first thin layer of dielectric material onto an integrated circuit structure, then exposing the integrated circuit structure to an elevated temperature. Then a second thin layer of dielectric material is deposited immediately overtop of the first thin layer of dielectric material, and then the integrated circuit structure is again exposed to an elevated temperature. The process is carried out to insure that the composite layer comprising the first and second deposited thin dielectric layers, after heat treatment, exhibits a residual stress which is compressive.

Abstract: An intensity filter for deep UV lithography enhances contrast and also therefore increases the resolution of patterned images by passing only intensities that fall within a specific minimum threshold value, resulting in a more exact aerial image replicating the mask image. This device is a different approach to contrast enhancement that is distinguished from previous methods by eliminating the need for an extra layer of contrast enhancement on top of the resist, thereby reducing the number of processing steps in semiconductor fabrication.

Abstract: A system and method for encoding a sequence of 32 bit digital data words into a sequence of 33 or more bit codewords having constraints of (d=0, G=9/I=9) for recording upon a magnetic medium within a magnetic recording channel are disclosed. The method includes dividing each 32 bit digital data word into three 8-bit bytes and another 8-bit byte, expanding the another 8-bit byte into a 9-bit word, dividing the 9-bit word into three 3-bit subparts, forming three 11-bit intermediate blocks, each comprising one of the three 3-bit subparts and one of the three 8-bit bytes, encoding each of the three 11-bit intermediate blocks to generate three 11-bit encoded words, and forming each codeword from a set of the three 11 -bit encoded words. The set of the three 11-bit encoded words satisfies a predetermined minimum zero run length (d) constraint, a predetermined maximum zero run length (G) constraint, and a predetermined maximum interleave zero run length (I) coding constraint.

Abstract: A system and method is provided for verifying the functionality of a multimedia device. In one embodiment, the system includes a device under test and a computer configured to test the device by providing test bitstreams and sequences of user actions to the device. The computer uses bitstream profiles to describe, edit, and generate multimedia bitstreams. The profiles are used to describe in human-intelligible form the values of fields of interest in multimedia bitstreams. Since the fields of interest vary between verification tests, the profile form is subject to change. Bitstream profiles for verification of the multimedia device software may comprise instruction mnemonics and associated operands which specify the navigation instructions in the test bitstreams. A compiler may be provided for converting the profile into bitstream field values, and a combiner may be provided for combining the bitstream field values with an existing bitstream to generate test bitstreams for verification.

Abstract: A method for optimizing the routing of nets in an integrated circuit device, said method comprising the steps of dividing an integrated circuit design with lines in a first direction and lines in a second direction, wherein said first direction is substantially orthogonal to said second direction, forming a routing graph with vertices corresponding to locations where lines in said first direction and lines in said second direction cross and edges connect vertices, for each edge in a plurality of edges in said routing graph, computing an individual edge occupancy value, for an edge in said plurality of edges, computing a penalty value as a function of the individual edge occupancy value of a different edge, and routing a net as a function of said penalty value.