Abstract: The objects of the present invention is to improve the impact resistance of the semiconductor device against the impact from the top surface direction, to improve the corrosion resistance of the surface of the top layer interconnect, to inhibit the crack occurred in the upper layer of the interconnect layer when the surface of the electrode pad is poked with the probe during the non-defective/defective screening, and to prevent the corrosion of the interconnect layer when the surface of electrode pad is poked with the probe during the non-defective/defective screening. A Ti film 116, a TiN film 115 and a pad metal film 117 are formed in this sequence on the upper surface of a Cu interconnect 112. The thermal annealing process is conducted within an inert gas atmosphere to form a Ti—Cu layer 113, and thereafter a polyimide film 118 is formed, and then a cover through hole is provided thereon to expose the surface of the pad metal film 117, and finally a solder ball 120 is joined thereto.

Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprises a transistor circuit exhibiting inductance at a desired frequency owing to capacitance between electrodes in a MOS transistor, the transistor circuit having an impedance that increases with an increase in frequency; and a first MOS transistor that functions as a source follower having the transistor circuit as a load.

Abstract: A data processing apparatus includes an operation processing unit and a data feature determining circuit. The operation processing unit is configured to sequentially perform preset operation processing on operation data in units of sub blocks to output an operation resultant data. Each of the operation data is divided into blocks, each of which comprises the sub blocks. The data feature determining circuit is configured to control the operation processing unit in units of blocks based on feature data respectively added to the blocks to indicate features of the blocks.

Abstract: An electrical fuse circuit is provided with: a protection element having a first terminal connected to a power source and outputting a fusing voltage from a second terminal; an electrical fuse having a third terminal connected to the second terminal of the protection circuit; and a fusing transistor connected between the electrical fuse and ground to switch a current through the electrical fuse. The second terminal of the protection element is connected to a gate of the fusing transistor.

Abstract: A mesa photodiode which includes a mesa, the sidewall of the mesa is a surface that is inclined in the direction in which the bottom of the mesa becomes wider. At least the sidewall of the mesa is covered with a semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, a second conductivity type, a semi-insulating type, or an undoped type. The semiconductor layer is grown on at least the sidewall of the mesa. The inclined angle of the inclined surface of the mesa at the upper end portion is smaller than the inclined angle of the inclined surface of the mesa at the lower end portion.

Abstract: A semiconductor device comprises: a task state storage configured to store an executing state of a processing task of software executed by a CPU and to output an executing state signal to show the executing state of the processing task; a task validity judging section configured to acquire an interruption signal corresponding to the processing task based on a control of the CPU and the execution state signal, and to output a valid signal when the processing task is executed validly; a clear signal output section configured to output a clear signal in response to the valid signal; and a watchdog timer configured to clear a timer count value when the clear signal is acquired within a prescribed time and to output a reset signal when the clear signal is not acquired within the prescribed time.

Abstract: A frequency synthesizer comprises a VCO group; a phase comparator; and a loop filter. Each VCO includes a varactor and a capacitor bank including a plurality of weighted capacitance elements, and a plurality of switches turned ON and OFF based on a control signal. Also provided a temperature compensation including a varactor correction potential generation circuit, a correction potential generation circuit for parasitic capacitance of the capacitor bank, a variable gain amplifier in which weighting processing, based on a control signal of the capacitor bank, is performed on an output potential of the correction potential generation circuit, and an adder circuit that adds the output voltage of the correction potential generation circuit of the varactor and output voltage of the variable gain amplifier, and the varactor of the VCO is controlled by output (correction potential) of the adder circuit.

Abstract: Provided is a signal processing apparatus including: an equalizer circuit that amplifies a predetermined frequency band of an input signal and outputs an output signal; a sampler circuit that samples the output signal amplified by the equalizer circuit with the output signal being offset in an amplitude direction using a multiphase clock system; an area information calculation circuit that calculates area information of an eye opening in an eye diagram of the output signal based on the output signal sampled by the sampler circuit; and a control circuit that controls amplification of the equalizer circuit based on the area information of the eye opening calculated by the area information calculation circuit.

Abstract: A layout design method in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present invention is a layout design method for a clock tree circuit, including disposing a first clock distribution circuit in a clock tree circuit, wiring the clock tree circuit in which the first clock distribution circuit is disposed, verifying timing of the wired clock tree circuit, and replacing the first distribution element by a second clock distribution circuit based on a result of the timing verification, the second clock distribution circuit having roughly a same input load capacitance as the first clock distribution circuit and a different delay value from the first clock distribution circuit.

Abstract: An output circuit includes a first differential pair of transistors driven by a first current source and differentially receiving input signals and a second differential pair of transistors driven by a second current source and differentially receiving first control signals (EMT, EMB). Output pairs of the first and second differential pairs are connected to the differential output terminals. A load resistor element pair is connected between a power supply and the differential output terminals. The output circuit further includes a third differential pair of transistors driven by a third current source and differentially receiving second control signals and a fourth differential pair of transistors driven by a fourth current source and differentially receiving third control signals. An output pair of the third differential pair of transistors is connected between one of the differential output terminals and the power supply.

Abstract: Booster circuit comprising: first transistor that is connected to first node; capacitor that has one end connected to first node, and that is charged with voltage of first node when first transistor is activated; and control signal generating circuit that provides control terminal of first transistor with control signal being in accordance with first clock, wherein when first transistor is de-activated, capacitor boosts voltage of first node to first voltage by voltage being applied to or end of capacitor, voltage applied to or end being at least ½ as great as first supply voltage, and control signal generating circuit sets voltage of control signal when first transistor is de-activated to be first voltage of first node, and sets voltage of control signal when first transistor is activated to be voltage, difference between voltage and first voltage being equal to or smaller than value of first supply voltage.

Abstract: It is desired to achieve a high ESD protection performance by a small area circuit. An electrostatic discharge protection circuit includes: protection circuits, wherein each protection circuit includes a MOS transistor; and a trigger circuit configured to supply a trigger signal to a gate electrode of the MOS transistor of each protection circuit in response to a surge voltage between a low potential node and a high potential node. Each protection circuit is configured to electrically connect the low potential node and the high potential node to one another when the trigger signal is supplied to the gate electrode. The gate electrode of each protection circuit is connected to a resistive element having larger resistance value than Rmax, supposing that Rmax is a largest parasitic resistance between each of the plurality of protection circuit and an output of the trigger circuit.

Abstract: A synchronization timing detecting apparatus includes a correlation calculator configured to generate a first correlation value by calculating a cross-correlation between an input signal being sampled and a reference signal or an auto-correlation of the sampled input signal, an interpolation processor configured to generate a second correlation value interpolating a plurality of the first correlation values having a different combination of sampling points of the input signal, and a detector to detect a synchronization timing based on the first and the second correlation values.

Abstract: The semiconductor device of the present invention includes a first insulating film on a substrate having a first region and a second region, a light shielding film formed in the first region and an interconnect film formed in the second region in the first insulating film and a second insulating film having a first concave portion above the light shielding film in the first region and an interconnect hole having a via hole and a second concave portion in the second region in the second insulating film on the first insulating film, wherein an area of the light shielding film is overlapping an area of the first plurality of concave portions.

Abstract: Provided is the method for manufacturing the semiconductor device including: providing a film (organic silicon polymer film) containing a silane compound and a porogen on a substrate; providing a hole (interconnect trench) in the organic silicon polymer film using a selective etching process and providing a metallic film (barrier film and copper interconnect) in the inside of the interconnect trench; and conducting a radiation with ultraviolet over the organic silicon polymer film within an atmosphere of a reducing gas while the film is heated at a temperature of not lower than a boiling point or a decomposition temperature of the porogen to obtain a microporous film.

Abstract: Provided is a test system of a semiconductor integrated circuit including an output device and an input device for conducting an input/output characteristics test of the output device and the input device inside the semiconductor integrated circuit. In the system, a transmission line provided in a test board where the semiconductor integrated circuit is mounted on establishes a wired connection between an external terminal of one circuit of one of the output device and the input device and external terminals of a plurality of circuits of another one of the output device and the input device.

Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a lower layer wiring layer, an MIM capacitors and an upper layer wiring layer. The lower layer wiring layer includes a plurality of lower layer wirings. The MIM capacitor is formed above the lower layer wiring layer. The MIM capacitor includes a lower electrode, a capacity dielectric film and an upper electrode which are layered from underneath in this order. A planar form of the upper electrode is smaller than that of the lower electrode. The upper layer wiring layer includes a plurality of upper layer wirings which are connected to the lower electrode and the upper electrode through via plugs. A plane of the upper electrode is made rectangular. The lower layer wirings are not arranged right below one or more than one edge of the plane of the upper electrode.

Abstract: The core adjusting process includes a procedure of searching for the position in which the photocurrent of the light-receiving element reaches its peak in each of the X-, Y-, and Z-directions. In the searching procedure, the light emitted from a multimode fiber of a MCP is gathered by a lens and is transmitted to the light-receiving element. A check is then made to determine whether, at in both directions of the search direction, there exist a first and second attenuation positions in which the photocurrent shows a predetermined attenuation relative to a peak value in a search range. If there exist the attenuation positions, a peak position is determined to be a position located within a second predetermined range from the middle point between the attenuation positions, and the relative positions of the receptacle and the CAN package are adjusted to the peak position.

Abstract: A voltage-controlled oscillator includes a resonator section in which a plurality of types of variable capacitance elements having different structures and capacitance variation characteristics are connected in parallel and capacitance values of the plurality of types of variable capacitance elements are controlled simultaneously by a control voltage; and an amplifier section for maintaining oscillation produced by the resonator section. Varactor diodes and MOS varactors can be used as the variable capacitance elements.

Abstract: A layout region in which a wiring pattern and a special pattern are placed is divided into division regions. The minimum pitch for the special pattern is larger than the minimum pitch for the wiring pattern. With respect to each division region, the special pattern included in a predetermined region surrounding the each division region is extracted as a peripheral pattern, and a dummy pattern placement region included in the each division region is determined. The dummy pattern placement region is apart from at least one of boundaries between adjacent division regions. A dummy pattern is added in the dummy pattern placement region with avoiding a design rule error with the peripheral pattern existing around the each division region. Then, the plurality of division regions to which the dummy pattern is added are coupled with each other.