Patents Examined by Edgardo Ortiz
  • Patent number: 6939754
    Abstract: A high-quality isotropic polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and a method for fabricating high quality isotropic poly-Si film are provided. The method includes forming a film of amorphous silicon (a-Si) and using a MISPC process to form poly-Si film in a first area of the a-Si film. The method then anneals a second area, included in the first area, using a Laser-Induced Lateral Growth (LILaC) process. In some aspects, a 2N-shot laser irradiation process is used as the LILaC process. In some aspects, a directional solidification process is used as the LILaC process. In response to using the MISPC film as a precursor film, the method forms low angle grain boundaries in poly-Si in the second area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America, Inc.
    Inventors: Masao Moriguchi, Apostolos T. Voutsas, Mark A. Crowder
  • Patent number: 6940565
    Abstract: A liquid crystal display device, and a fabricating method thereof, having organic pixel electrodes. The organic pixel electrodes are benefically comprised of a light sensitive organic material, preferably PEDOT (polyethylenedioxythiophene). The organic pixel electrodes are rendered electrically conductive using light. The method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device coating or screen printing a TFT substrate with the light sensitive organic material, and then illuminating selected portions of the light sensitive material to form the organic pixel electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 6, 2005
    Assignee: LG.Philips LCD Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jeong Hyun Kim, Hyun Sik Seo
  • Patent number: 6933527
    Abstract: It is a problem to provide a semiconductor device production system using a laser crystallization method capable of preventing grain boundaries from forming in a TFT channel region and further preventing conspicuous lowering in TFT mobility due to grain boundaries, on-current decrease or off-current increase. An insulation film is formed on a substrate, and a semiconductor film is formed on the insulation film. Due to this, preferentially formed is a region in the semiconductor film to be concentratedly applied by stress during crystallization with laser light. Specifically, a stripe-formed or rectangular concavo-convex is formed on the semiconductor film. Continuous-oscillation laser light is irradiated along the striped concavo-convex or along a direction of a longer or shorter axis of rectangle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2005
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Atsuo Isobe, Koji Dairiki, Hiroshi Shibata, Chiho Kokubo, Tatsuya Arao, Masahiko Hayakawa, Hidekazu Miyairi, Akihisa Shimomura, Koichiro Tanaka, Shunpei Yamazaki, Mai Akiba
  • Patent number: 6930326
    Abstract: According to the invention, a plurality of semiconductor devices which are required to have conformance are formed from crystalline semiconductor films having uniform crystallinity on the same line, and a semiconductor circuit in which variation between semiconductor devices is small can be provided, and a semiconductor integrated circuit having high conformance can be provided. The invention is characterized in that, in a part or whole of thin film transistors which configure an analog circuit such as a current mirror circuit, a differential amplifier circuit, or an operational amplifier, in which high conformance is required for semiconductor devices included therein, channel forming regions have crystalline semiconductor films on the same line. High conformance can be expected for an analog circuit which has the crystalline semiconductor films on the same line formed using the invention as the channel forming regions of the thin film transistors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kiyoshi Kato, Tomoaki Atsumi, Atsuo Isobe
  • Patent number: 6930379
    Abstract: An electrical device includes electrical contact pads, a supply voltage bus and an interconnection circuit. The electrical contact pads receive a supply voltage, and the bus is electrically connected to the electrical contact pads. For each electrical contact pad, the interconnection circuit forms a redundant connection between the bus and the electrical contact pad. The electrical device may include a passivation layer that includes windows to establish electrical contact between the electrical contact pads and the supply voltage bus. This window may be elongated in a path that is generally aligned with the path along which the supply voltage bus extends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2005
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventor: Krishna Seshan
  • Patent number: 6927474
    Abstract: A metal-to-metal capacitor in a semiconductor integrated circuit is converted to a conductive structure by connecting the first metal plate of the capacitor to ground and the second metal plate of the capacitor to a programming voltage, thus causing the insulator material to breakdown and conduct current from the first plate to the second plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2005
    Assignee: National Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Denis Finbarr O'Connell, Prasad Chaparala
  • Patent number: 6924541
    Abstract: A semiconductor photodetection device includes a semiconductor structure including an optical absorption layer having a photo-incidence surface on a first side thereof, a dielectric reflecting layer formed on a second side of the semiconductor structure opposite to the first side, a contact electrode surrounding the dielectric reflecting layer and contacting with the semiconductor structure, and a close contact electrode covering the dielectric reflecting layer and contacting with the contact electrode and the dielectric reflecting layer, wherein the close contact electrode adheres to the dielectric reflecting layer more strongly than to the contact electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2005
    Assignee: Fujitsu Quantum Devices Limited
    Inventors: Yoshihiro Yoneda, Ikuo Hanawa
  • Patent number: 6924515
    Abstract: The invention is to realize such a semiconductor light-emitting element which is higher in external quantum efficiency than an existing LED, and lower in production cost than an existing semiconductor laser. The light transmission insulating film is formed on a continuously incline face comprising the semiconductor layers having an opening angle etched in right angled V. The V shape incline is formed by a known technique, and both left and right inclined faces have the angle of 45°. Depending on the length of ? or the position of the light reflecting portion, probability that the light in duration of resonance is reflected may be made optimum or preferable. According to this structure, it is no longer necessary to carry out processing treatments of high degree, high precision, or high cost such as, e.g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2005
    Assignee: Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masanobu Senda, Jun Ito
  • Patent number: 6921697
    Abstract: Trench MIS devices including a thick insulative layer at the bottom of the trench are disclosed, along with methods of fabricating such devices. An exemplary trench MOSFET embodiment includes a thick oxide layer at the bottom of the trench, with no appreciable change in stress in the substrate along the trench bottom. The thick insulative layer separates the trench gate from the drain region at the bottom of the trench yielding a reduced gate-to-drain capacitance making such MOSFETs suitable for high frequency applications. In an exemplary fabrication process embodiment, the thick insulative layer is deposited on the bottom of the trench. A thin insulative gate dielectric is formed on the exposed sidewall and is coupled to the thick insulative layer. A gate is formed in the remaining trench volume. The process is completed with body and source implants, passivation, and metallization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2002
    Date of Patent: July 26, 2005
    Assignee: Siliconix Incorporated
    Inventors: Mohamed N. Darwish, Frederick P. Giles, Kam Hong Lui, Kuo-In Chen, Kyle Terrill
  • Patent number: 6911694
    Abstract: An LDMOS transistor and a bipolar transistor with LDMOS structures are disclosed for suitable use in high withstand voltage device applications, among others. The LDMOS transistor includes a drain well region 21 formed in P-type substrate 1, and also formed therein spatially separated one another are a channel well region 23 and a medium concentration drain region 24 having an impurity concentration larger than that of drain well region 21, which are simultaneously formed having a large diffusion depth through thermal processing. A source 11s is formed in channel well region 23, while a drain 11d is formed in drain region 24 having an impurity concentration larger than that of drain region 24. In addition, a gate electrode 11g is formed over the well region, overlying the partially overlapped portions with well region 23 and drain region 24 and being separated from drain 11d.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2005
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Takaaki Negoro, Keiji Fujimoto
  • Patent number: 6906376
    Abstract: An EEPROM cell device on a substrate is achieved. The device comprises, first, a selection transistor having gate, drain, source, and channel. The drain is defined as a cell bit line. An isolation transistor has gate, drain, source, and channel. The source is defined as a cell source line. Finally, a floating gate transistor has control gate, floating gate, drain, source, and channel. The drains and sources of each transistor comprise a diffusion layer in the substrate. The channels of each transistor comprise the substrate. The floating gate transistor drain is coupled to the selection transistor source. The floating gate transistor source is coupled to the isolation transistor drain. The device is programmed and erased by charge tunneling between the floating gate and the floating gate transistor channel. The device may further comprise an isolation well underlying the diffusion layer. A two transistor EEPROM cell is disclosed. Several array architectures using the EEPROM cell are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 13, 2002
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2005
    Assignee: A Plus Flash Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Fu-Chang Hsu, Hsing-Ya Tsao
  • Patent number: 6906385
    Abstract: An amorphous-silicon thin film transistor and a shift resister shift resister having the amorphous-silicon TFT include a first conductive region, a second conductive region and a third conductive region. The first conductive region is formed on a first plane spaced apart from a substrate by a first distance. The second conductive region is formed on a second plane spaced apart from the substrate by a second distance. The second conductive region includes a body conductive region and two hand conductive regions elongated from both ends of the body conductive region to form an U-shape. The third conductive region is formed on the second plane. The third conductive region includes an elongated portion. The elongated portion is disposed between the two hand conductive regions of the second conductive region. The amorphous-silicon TFT and the shift resister having the amorphous TFT reduce a parasitic capacitance between the gate electrode and drain electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2005
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Seung-Hwan Moon, Back-Won Lee
  • Patent number: 6897549
    Abstract: A frame for a semiconductor package has die-pads supported with suspending leads of individual lead frames. Semiconductor devices are arranged on the die-pads. These semiconductor devices are collectively molded with molding compound, and then the collectively molded semiconductor packages are cut into individual packages by means of a dicing saw. In the frame, suspending leads are formed into fish tails, wherein at least one of a longitudinal grid-lead and a transverse grid-lead is eliminated within areas enclosed with fish tails of the suspending leads. Accordingly, whether an R-shape generated by producing the frame by etching is large or small, the existence of metal pieces at the edges of the semiconductor packages is substantially prevented.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2005
    Assignee: Dainippon Printing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chikao Ikenaga, Kouji Tomita
  • Patent number: 6897536
    Abstract: An ESD-protection device includes a gate electrode formed on a substrate; a first diffusion region of a first conductivity type formed in the substrate at a first side of the gate electrode, a second diffusion region of the first conductivity type formed in the substrate at a second side of the gate electrode, and a third diffusion region of a second conductivity type formed in the substrate underneath the second diffusion region in contact with the second diffusion region. Thereby, the impurity concentration level of the third diffusion region is set to be larger than the impurity concentration level of the region of the substrate located at the same depth right underneath the gate electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2005
    Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
    Inventors: Toshio Nomura, Teruo Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6890828
    Abstract: A method for forming interlevel dielectric levels in a multilevel interconnect structure formed by a damascene process. The conductive features characteristic of the damascene process are formed in a removable mandrel material for each level of the interconnect structure. In at least one level, a portion of the mandrel material underlying the bond pad is clad on all sides with the metal forming the conductive features to define a support pillar. After all levels of the interconnect structure are formed, the mandrel material surrounding the conductive features is removed to leave air-filled voids that operate as an interlevel dielectric. The support pillar is impermeable to the etchant such that mandrel material and metal inside the support pillar is retained. The support pillar braces the bond pad against vertical mechanical forces applied by, for example, probing or wire bonding and thereby reduces the likelihood of related damage to the interconnect structure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2005
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: David Vaclav Horak, Charles William Koburger, III, Peter H. Mitchell, Larry Alan Nesbit
  • Patent number: 6888183
    Abstract: After a MOS type transistor is formed on the surface of a semiconductor substrate, an interlayer insulating film covering the transistor is formed. The insulating film includes a silicon oxide film made of hydrogen silsesquioxane resin in a ceramic state. After a wiring layer is formed on the insulating film, a silicon oxide film as a surface protection film is formed on the insulating film, covering the wiring layer. In order to reduce process damages, heat treatment is performed 30 minutes at 400° C. in a nitrogen gas atmosphere. With this heat treatment, hydrogen in the silicon oxide film is released and diffuses into the channel region of the transistor to lower interfacial energy levels. Since the silicon nitride film does not transmit hydrogen, it is not necessary for the heat treatment atmosphere to contain hydrogen. A variation in threshold voltages of MOS type transistors can be easily lowered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2000
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2005
    Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
    Inventor: Takahisa Yamaha
  • Patent number: 6888202
    Abstract: An integrated circuit is provided comprising a latch circuit including, a first inverter including a first high threshold voltage PMOS transistor and a first high threshold voltage NMOS transistor with a first data node comprising interconnected source/drains (S/D) of the first PMOS and NMOS transistors; a second inverter including a second high threshold voltage PMOS transistor and a second high threshold voltage NMOS transistor with a second data node comprising interconnected source/drains (S/D) of the second PMOS and NMOS transistors; wherein the gates of the first PMOS and first NMOS transistors are coupled to the second data node; wherein the gates of the second PMOS and second NMOS transistors are coupled to the first data node; a first low threshold voltage access transistor including a first S/D coupled to the first data node and to the gate of the second PMOS transistor and to the gate of the second NMOS transistor and including a second S/D coupled to a first data access node and including a gate c
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2005
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Sung-Mo Kang, Seung-Moon Yoo
  • Patent number: 6888182
    Abstract: A thin film transistor of the present invention is provided with (i) a plurality of divided channel regions formed under a gate electrode, and (ii) divided source regions and divided drain regions between which each of the divided channel regions is sandwiched, the divided source regions being connected with one another, and the divided drain regions being connected with one another. Here, the divided channel regions are so arranged that a spacing between the divided channel regions is smaller than a channel divided width which is a width of one divided channel region, the channel divided width is not more than 50 ?m, and the spacing is not less than 3 ?m. With this arrangement, it is possible to provide a thin film transistor capable of obtaining reliability with reducing the variation in threshold voltage by reducing the self-heating at the channel regions, as well as capable of reducing the increase of a layout area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 18, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2005
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiro Mitani, Yasumori Fukushima
  • Patent number: 6885056
    Abstract: According to one exemplary embodiment, a high-k dielectric stack situated between upper and lower electrodes of a MIM capacitor comprises a first high-k dielectric layer, where the first high-k dielectric layer has a first dielectric constant. The high-k dielectric stack further comprises an intermediate dielectric layer situated on the first high-k dielectric layer, where the intermediate dielectric layer has a second dielectric constant. According to this exemplary embodiment, the high-k dielectric stack further comprises a second high-k dielectric layer situated on the intermediate dielectric layer, where the second high-k dielectric layer has a third dielectric constant. The second dielectric constant can be lower than the first dielectric constant and the third dielectric constant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2005
    Assignee: Newport Fab, LLC
    Inventors: Dieter Dornisch, David J Howard, Abhijit B Joshi
  • Patent number: 6882000
    Abstract: Trench MIS devices including a thick insulative layer at the bottom of the trench are disclosed, along with methods of fabricating such devices. An exemplary trench MOSFET embodiment includes a thick oxide layer at the bottom of the trench, with no appreciable change in stress in the substrate along the trench bottom. The thick insulative layer separates the trench gate from the drain region at the bottom of the trench yielding a reduced gate-to-drain capacitance making such MOSFETs suitable for high frequency applications. In an exemplary fabrication process embodiment, the thick insulative layer is deposited on the bottom of the trench. A thin insulative gate dielectric is formed on the exposed sidewall and is coupled to the thick insulative layer. A gate is formed in the remaining trench volume. The process is completed with body and source implants, passivation, and metallization.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2005
    Assignee: Siliconix Incorporated
    Inventors: Mohamed N. Darwish, Frederick P. Giles, Kam Hong Lui, Kuo-In Chen, Kyle Terrill