Patents Examined by Jack Chiang
  • Patent number: 11176304
    Abstract: Embodiments are disclosed for routing a cell of a semiconductor chip, the cell being represented by a matrix, encoding first tracks of the cell as columns of the matrix and second tracks of the cell as rows of the matrix, respectively. The method includes performing a sweep operation on the matrix, the sweep operation including generating an index structure indexed by columns of the matrix, the index structure including information on candidate cut shapes that can be placed in a particular column of the matrix. Additionally, the method includes recursively placing cut shapes into the cell based on the index structure, one recursion of the placing including finding a possible cut shape and recursively placing the remaining cut shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Thomas Makowski, Matthias Ringe, Andreas H. A. Arp, Michael V. Koch, Fatih Cilek
  • Patent number: 11176302
    Abstract: Methods and example implementations described herein are generally directed to a System on Chip (SoC) design and verification system and method that constructs SoC from functional building blocks circuits while concurrently taking into account numerous chip level design aspects along with the generation of a simulation environment for design verification. An aspect of the present disclosure relates to a method for generating a System on Chip (SoC) from a floor plan having one or more integration descriptions. The method includes the steps of generating one or more connections between the integration descriptions of the floor plan based at least on a traffic specification, and conducting a design check process on the floor plan. If the design check process on the floor plan is indicative of passing the design check process, then the method generates the SoC according to the one or more connections generated between the integration descriptions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: NETSPEED SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Nishant Rao, Sailesh Kumar, Pier Giorgio Raponi
  • Patent number: 11169895
    Abstract: In an approach to simulating an electronic device, a copy of a design under test is created. A delayed buffer for the copy is created, where the inputs to the design under test are stored in the delayed buffer. A test program is run on the design under test and the copy, where the test program running on the copy is delayed in time by the delayed buffer. Responsive to determining that an event has occurred on the design under test, the test program on the copy is halted. The cause of the event is determined by using the inputs stored in the delayed buffer to scan the copy.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael James Becht, Pasquale A. Catalano, Stephen Robert Guendert, Christopher J Colonna
  • Patent number: 11170151
    Abstract: Methods and systems for checking a wafer-level design for compliance with a rule include determining a tile area that crosses a boundary between adjacent chip layouts and that leaves at least a portion of each chip layout uncovered. It is determined that a portion of a first chip layout inside the tile area fails to comply with one or more layout design rules. The first chip layout is modified to bring non-compliant periphery chip regions into compliance, in response to the determination that the portion of the first chip layout inside the tile area fails to comply with the one or more design rules. A multi-chip wafer is fabricated that includes the chip layouts.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: Terence B. Hook, Larry Wissel
  • Patent number: 11157675
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for automatically extracting standard cells to form a standard cell library using raw multi-layer images of an IC. Accordingly, various embodiments involve: extracting the raw contact layer image from the raw multi-layer images; binarizing the raw contact layer image to generate a binarized contact layer image identifying a plurality of contact rows and a plurality of contact columns; determining a plurality of Vcc lines based on a subset of the plurality of contact rows having a periodic nature; extracting a plurality of binarized contact layer image strips from the binarized contact layer image; encoding each binarized contact layer image strip using feature vectors and column distance values; applying a model rule set to each encoded binarized contact layer image strip for detecting cell boundaries; extracting the standard cells based on the cell boundaries; and storing the extracted cells to form a standard cell candidate library.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: University of Florida Research Foundation, Incorporated
    Inventors: Damon Woodard, Domenic J. Forte, Ronald Wilson, Navid Asadizanjani
  • Patent number: 11151300
    Abstract: A routing assembly for an electronic device has a plurality of connectors ports and each of the connector ports contains a first connector connected to one or more cables. Cables are directly terminated, at first ends thereof, to terminals of the first connectors and the cables can be embedded in a routing substrate. The routing substrate has an opening which accommodates a chip package. Second ends of the cables are terminated to second connectors arranged in the package opening and the second connectors are in turn connected to third connectors that are connected to the chip package.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: Molex, LLC
    Inventors: Brian Keith Lloyd, Gregory Walz, Ayman Isaac, Kent E. Regnier, Bruce Reed
  • Patent number: 11144703
    Abstract: A computerized system is disclosed. The computerized system may include one or more processors configured to perform the operations stored in a memory. The operations may include creating a plurality of library (lib) cells for a directional routing layer, and determining a lib cell of the plurality of lib cells for placement of at least one repeater for the directional routing layer. The operations may also include determining a route touch region corresponding to a pin region of the lib cell through which a route is going through and inserting the at least one repeater at the route touch region. The operations may also include swapping the at least one inserted repeater to at least one target lib cell of the plurality of lib cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Synopsys, Inc.
    Inventors: Kai-Ping Wang, Haiying Liu
  • Patent number: 11144698
    Abstract: An approach is described for a method, system, and product, that includes identification/generation of a synthesized netlist for use in optimization and placement, generation and utilization of multiple uncertainty values for an early clock tree for guiding optimization and placed of circuit elements in a placeopt process that operates on a path by path basis. In some embodiments, the approach further comprises execution of clock tree synthesis, and routing the synthesized clock tree. In some embodiments, uncertainty values are propagated along data paths where each data path is associated with an uncertainty value, and where each path is optimized and placed on a path my path basis in order to meeting timing requirements and one or more design goals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 12, 2021
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Vibhor Garg, Edward J. Martinage, Amit Dhuria, Krishna Prasad Belkhale
  • Patent number: 11138356
    Abstract: A power usage estimation system for a design emulated on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) comprising a periodic dump unit implementing statistical data sampling to generate a periodic dump without emulation stops and interactions with a host, and without affecting the emulation performance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Synopsys, inc.
    Inventors: Alex Potapov, Boris Gommershtadt, Yan Zucker
  • Patent number: 11132483
    Abstract: According to an embodiment, a method for forming an electronic circuit is provided including forming a netlist of an electronic circuit having a multiplicity of flip-flops, selecting groups of flip-flops from the multiplicity of flip-flops, providing, for each selected group of flip-flops, an error detection circuit for the flip-flops of the group and forming the electronic circuit based on the netlist to include the provided error detection circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Marco Bucci, Raimondo Luzzi
  • Patent number: 11132482
    Abstract: Technologies are described herein to track information storage resources in a quantum circuit during compile time or runtime of a program by which quantum algorithms are built.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: IonQ, Inc.
    Inventors: Omar Shehab, Andrew Ducore, Matthew Keesan
  • Patent number: 11132485
    Abstract: A method comprising using at least one hardware processor for: running a Monte Carlo simulation of possible integrated circuit (IC) process variations of each of a plurality of IC cell types, wherein each of the plurality of IC cell types is defined by multiple specific transistors and multiple specific interconnects; based on the results of the Monte Carlo simulation, creating a library of IC cell types and their corresponding behavioral values for each of the possible IC process variations, and storing the library in a non-transient memory; receiving an IC design embodied as a digital file; correlating the received IC design with the library; and predicting a frequency distribution and a power distribution of ICs manufactured according to the IC design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 19, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 28, 2021
    Assignee: PROTEANTECS LTD.
    Inventors: Evelyn Landman, Yair Talker, Eyal Fayneh, Yahel David, Shai Cohen, Inbar Weintrob
  • Patent number: 11120185
    Abstract: The computer processor identifies a first shared set of input ports that are common to a first hardware model and a second hardware model and a second shared set of input ports that are common to a first reference model and a second reference model. The computer processor selects logic of the first hardware model and logic of the second hardware model that are each traceable to the first shared set of input ports and selects logic of the first reference model and logic of the second reference model that are each traceable to the second shared set of input ports. The computer processor determines that the logic of the second hardware model and the logic of the second reference model have verified logic by determining that the logic of the first hardware model is equivalent to the logic of the second hardware model and the logic of the first reference model is equivalent to the logic of the second reference model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yan Heng Lu, Chen Qian, Zhen Peng Zuo, Heng Liu, Peng Fei Gou, Yang Fan Liu
  • Patent number: 11106968
    Abstract: A circuit arrangement includes a buffer, a height traversal circuit configured to generate a sequence of IFM height values in response to first control signals, a width traversal circuit configured to generate a sequence of IFM width values in response to second control signals, a control circuit, and an address generation circuit. The control circuit is configured to input an OFM height, an OFM width, a kernel height, and a kernel width; generate the first control signals at times based on the OFM height and the kernel height; and generate the second control signals at times based on the OFM width and the kernel width. The address generation circuit is configured to generate a sequence of addresses based on the sequences of IFM height values and IFM width values, provide the sequence of addresses to the buffer, and enable reading from the buffer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: XILINX, INC.
    Inventors: Ehsan Ghasemi, Elliott Delaye, Ashish Sirasao
  • Patent number: 11106846
    Abstract: A compaction circuit in an emulation system may store in a data array emulation data that may be read in subsequent emulation steps. For each emulation step, the compaction circuit may receive keeptags from a local control store word of the emulation step and store portions of emulation data identified by the keeptags. The keeptags in the control store words may be inserted by a compiler based upon whether a corresponding read port of emulation processor reads the stored data in the subsequent steps. The compaction circuit may also translate the logical read address of the stored data to a physical read address in the shared data array. A dynamic modification engine may enable dynamic modification of netlists while using the compacted data array. In response to a request, the dynamic modification engine may modify one or more keeptags and update read addresses in the control store words.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS, INC.
    Inventors: Mitchell G. Poplack, Yuhei Hayashi
  • Patent number: 11092885
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device includes randomly placing a plurality of standard cells from a library in which the standard cells are pre-stored, designing an interconnection pattern in which the standard cells are connected randomly to each other, connecting the standard cells according to the interconnection pattern to generate a virtual layout, performing an optical proximity correction operation on the virtual layout using an optical proximity correction (OPC) model, and forming and verifying a mask corresponding to the virtual layout on which the optical proximity correction operation is performed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2021
    Inventors: Akio Misaka, Noyoung Chung, Woonhyuk Choi
  • Patent number: 11088111
    Abstract: A semiconductor device according to the present invention includes: a through via formed to penetrate a semiconductor substrate; first and second buffer circuits; a wiring forming layer formed in an upper layer of the semiconductor substrate; a connecting wiring portion formed in an upper portion of the through via assuming that a direction from the semiconductor substrate to the wiring forming layer is an upward direction, the connecting wiring portion being formed on a chip inner end face that faces the upper portion of the semiconductor substrate at an end face of the through via; a first path connecting the first buffer circuit and the through via; and a second path connecting the second buffer circuit and the through via. The first path and the second path are electrically connected through the connecting wiring portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 10, 2021
    Assignee: Renesas Electronics Corporation
    Inventor: Koji Takayanagi
  • Patent number: 11080456
    Abstract: To increase the efficiency of electronic design automation, execute partition-aware global routing with track assignment on an electronic data structure including a small block floorplan of a putative integrated circuit design. The small block floorplan is virtually partitioned into a proposed large block floorplan with a plurality of inter-large-block boundaries of a plurality of large blocks. Based on results of the executing, determine locations, on the inter-large-block boundaries, of a plurality of required ports corresponding to routes identified in the routing, as well as required sizes of the ports. Generate a physical partitioning based on the inter-large-block boundaries; align the ports with the inter-large-block boundaries; and generate a hardware description language design structure encoding the physical partitioning.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Michael Kazda, Harald Folberth, Paul G. Villarrubia, Stephan Held, Pietro Saccardi
  • Patent number: 11074379
    Abstract: For each of a plurality of source-sink pairs, a corresponding interconnect layer is selected having a reach length which permits propagation of a required signal within a required sink cycle delay. For a first clock cycle, a movable region for a first latch is located as a first plurality of overlapped regions one reach length from a source and the required sink cycle delay number of reach lengths from each one of the sinks; and the first plurality of overlapped regions is represented as nodes on a first cycle level of a topology search graph. Analogous actions are carried out for a second clock cycle of the required sink cycle delay. A latch tree is created based on the topology search graph, wherein a required number of latches is minimized, and at each of the cycle levels, all sinks of source nodes selected at a previous level are covered.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 27, 2021
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lakshmi N. Reddy, Gustavo Enrique Tellez, Paul G. Villarrubia, Christopher Joseph Berry, Michael Hemsley Wood, Robert A. Philhower, Gi-Joon Nam, Jinwook Jung
  • Patent number: 11055470
    Abstract: A method of determining electromigration (EM) compliance of a circuit is performed. The method includes providing a layout of the circuit, the layout comprising one or more metal lines, and changing a property of one or more of the one or more metal lines within one or more nets of a plurality of nets in the layout. Each of the nets includes a subset of the one or more metal lines. The method also includes determining one or more current values drawn only within the one or more nets and comparing the determined one or more current values drawn with corresponding threshold values. Based on the comparison, an indication is provided whether or not the layout is compliant. A pattern of the one or more metal lines in the compliant layout is transferred to a mask to be used in the manufacturing of the circuit on a substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2021
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Chin-Shen Lin, Ching-Shun Yang, Hsien Yu-Tseng