Patents Examined by Jesse A Fenty
  • Patent number: 7186998
    Abstract: A multi-terminal logic device. The device includes a phase change material having crystalline and amorphous states in electrical communication with three or more electrical terminals. The phase change material is able to undergo reversible transformations between amorphous and crystalline states in response to applied electrical energy where the amorphous and crystalline states show measurably distinct electrical resistances. Electrical energy in the form of current or voltage pulses applied between a pair of terminals influences the structural state and measured electrical resistance between the terminals. In the instant devices, independent input signals are provided between different pairs of terminals and the output is measured as the resistance between yet another pair of terminals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2004
    Date of Patent: March 6, 2007
    Assignee: Energy Conversion Devices, Inc.
    Inventors: Stanford R. Ovshinsky, Boil Pashmakov
  • Patent number: 7180160
    Abstract: A MRAM storage device comprises a substrate, on/above of which a plurality of word lines, a plurality of bit lines, a plurality of memory cells, and a plurality of isolation diodes are provided. Each memory cell forms a resistive cross point of one word line and one bit line, respectively. Each memory cell is connected to one isolation diode such that a unidirectional conductive path is formed from a word line to a bit line via the corresponding memory cell, respectively. The substrate, at least a part of the word lines or at least a part of the bit lines, and the isolation diodes are realized as one common monocrystal semiconductor block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2004
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2007
    Assignees: Infineon Technologies AG, Altis Semiconductor
    Inventors: Richard Ferrant, Daniel Braun, Pascal Louis
  • Patent number: 7173310
    Abstract: An ESD LUBISTOR structure based on FINFET technology employs a vertical fin (a thin vertical member containing the source, drain and body of the device) in alternatives with and without a gate. The gate may be connected to the external electrode being protected to make a self-activating device or may be connected to a reference voltage. The device may be used in digital or analog circuits.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2007
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Steven H. Voldman, Jack A. Mandelman
  • Patent number: 7170178
    Abstract: A capacitive structure is provided that includes secondary stacks of superposed secondary electrodes that each include transverse branches connected via a longitudinal branch, means for connecting the superposed secondary electrodes of each of the stacks, first and second means for successively and alternately connecting so as to constitute a first secondary group of secondary stacks and a second secondary group of secondary stacks, at least two principal stacks of superposed principal electrodes which each include transverse branches that are connected via a longitudinal branch such that the transverse branches of the principal electrodes and the transverse branches of the secondary electrodes of the rows extend opposite one another and between one another in an alternating fashion, means for connecting the superposed principal electrodes of each of the principal stacks, and means for connecting the principal stacks so as to constitute a group of stacks of principal electrodes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2007
    Assignee: STMicroelectronics SA
    Inventors: Mickaël Bely, Mounir Boulemnakher, Olivier Noblanc
  • Patent number: 7166893
    Abstract: A MISFET capable of a high speed operation includes a metal silicide layer in a high concentration region aligned with a gate side wall layer on a self-alignment basis. A MISFET which can be driven at a high voltage includes an LDD portion having a width greater than the width of the side wall layer, a high concentration region in contact with the LDD portion and a metal silicide layer in the high concentration region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2007
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Yasuhiro Taniguchi, Shoji Shukuri, Kenichi Kuroda, Shuji Ikeda, Takashi Hashimoto
  • Patent number: 7148536
    Abstract: A method of forming memory circuitry having a memory array having a plurality of memory capacitors and having peripheral memory circuitry operatively configured to write to and read from the memory array, includes forming a dielectric well forming layer over a semiconductor substrate. A portion of the well forming layer is removed effective to form at least one well within the well forming layer. An array of memory cell capacitors is formed within the well. The peripheral memory circuitry is formed laterally outward of the well forming layer memory array well. In one implementation, memory circuitry includes a semiconductor substrate. A plurality of word lines is received over the semiconductor substrate. An insulative layer is received over the word lines and the substrate. The insulative layer has at least one well formed therein. The well has a base received over the word lines. The well peripherally defines an outline of a memory array area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2006
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Belford T. Coursey
  • Patent number: 7145220
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes second to fourth semiconductor layers, a gate electrode, and an insulating film. The second semiconductor layer is formed on a first semiconductor layer and has a projecting shape. The third and fourth semiconductor layers are formed on the first semiconductor layer to be in contact with the second semiconductor layer and oppose each other via the second semiconductor layer. The gate electrode is in contact with the second semiconductor layer with a gate insulating film interposed therebetween and forms a channel in the second semiconductor layer. The insulating film is formed in the first semiconductor layer located immediately under the third and fourth semiconductor layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 16, 2004
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2006
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Mutsuo Morikado
  • Patent number: 7135733
    Abstract: The present invention provides a capacitor for use in a semiconductor device having a damascene interconnect structure, such as a dual damascene interconnect, formed over a substrate of a semiconductor wafer. In one particularly advantageous embodiment, the capacitor, comprises a first capacitor electrode, such as copper, comprised of a portion of the damascene interconnect structure, an insulator layer formed on the damascene interconnect structure wherein the insulator layer is a passivation layer, such as silicon nitride. The passivation layer may be an outermost or final passivation layer, or it may be an interlevel passivation layer. The capacitor further includes a second capacitor electrode comprised of a conductive layer, such as aluminum, that is formed on at least a portion of the insulator layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2006
    Assignee: Agere Systems Inc.
    Inventors: Stephen Downey, Edward Harris, Sailesh Merchant
  • Patent number: 7132718
    Abstract: A non-volatile semiconductor memory device with good write/erase characteristics is provided. A selection gate is formed on a p-type well of a semiconductor substrate via a gate insulator, and a memory gate is formed on the p-type well via a laminated film composed of a silicon oxide film, a silicon nitride film, and a silicon oxide film. The memory gate is adjacent to the selection gate via the laminated film. In the regions on the both sides of the selection gate and the memory gate in the p-type well, n-type impurity diffusion layers serving as the source and drain are formed. The region controlled by the selection gate and the region controlled by the memory gate located in the channel region between said impurity diffusion layers have the different charge densities of the impurity from each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Digh Hisamoto, Shinichiro Kimura, Kan Yasui, Nozomu Matsuzaki
  • Patent number: 7132706
    Abstract: A solid-state imaging device is provided which has preferable linearity of signal outputs according to light intensities and does not cause dark defects even at a low light intensity. The solid-state imaging device comprises: a ring gate having a non-uniform width; a source region formed inside the ring gate; a drain region formed surrounding a circumference of the ring gate; and a carrier pocket formed under the ring gate, wherein a region where (X divided by Y) is the smallest substantially coincides with a region where Z is the shortest; X is a pocket-to-source distance; Y is a pocket-to-drain distance; and Z is a source-to-drain distance.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2006
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventor: Kazunobu Kuwazawa
  • Patent number: 7129579
    Abstract: A semiconductor apparatus includes a semiconductor integrated circuit including a conductive pattern; an insulating layer which is formed on the semiconductor integrated circuit to forms a plurality of base members having uneven heights; an opening which is formed through the insulating layer to expose a part of the conductive pattern; and a conductive layer which is formed on the insulating layer and the opening, the conductive layer is extending from the exposed portion of the conductive pattern to the top surface of the highest base member. An electrode is composed of the insulating layer, the opening and the conductive layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2006
    Assignee: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Takashi Ohsumi
  • Patent number: 7122865
    Abstract: An SOI wafer, includes a substrate made from silicon, an electrically insulating layer with a thermal conductivity of at least 1.6 W/(Km) and a single-crystal silicon layer with a thickness of from 10 nm to 10 ?m, a standard deviation of at most 5% from the mean layer thickness and a density of at most 0.5 HF defects/cm2. A process is for producing an SOI wafer of this type, in which a substrate wafer made from silicon is joined to a donor wafer via a layer of the electrically insulating material which has previously been applied. The donor wafer bears a donor layer of single-crystal silicon, with a concentration of vacancies of at most 1012/cm3 and of vacancy agglomerates of at most 105/cm3. After the wafers have been joined, the thickness of the donor wafer is reduced in such a manner that the single-crystal silicon layer having these properties is formed from the donor layer, this single-crystal silicon layer being joined to the substrate wafer via the layer of electrically insulating material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2006
    Assignee: Siltronic AG
    Inventors: Robert Hölzl, Dirk Dantz, Andreas Huber, Ulrich Lambert, Reinhold Wahlich
  • Patent number: 7119405
    Abstract: An implantation method to improve ESD robustness of thick-oxide grounded-gate NMOSFET's in deep-submicron CMOS technologies. Based on standard process flow in DGO, a thick gate-oxide ESD device is improved. Instead of using the standard I/O device, the ESD device uses the thin-oxide N-LDD implantation, and thus its ESD robustness is enhanced. This is performed by updating the logic Boolean operations of thick gate-oxide and thin gate-oxide N-LDD before fabricating the masks. In TGO, the intermediate-oxide ESD uses thin-oxide N-LDD implantation, and the thick-oxide ESD uses intermediate-oxide N-LDD implantation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Assignee: LSI Logic Corporation
    Inventors: Jau-Wen Chen, Yoon Huh, Erhong Li
  • Patent number: 7119389
    Abstract: DRAM cells include a common drain region in an integrated circuit substrate and first and second source regions in the integrated circuit substrate, a respective one of which is laterally offset from the common drain region along respective first and second opposite directions. First and second storage nodes are provided on the integrated circuit substrate, a respective one of which is electrically connected to a respective one of the first and second source regions. The first and second storage nodes are laterally offset from the respective first and second source regions along the first direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sang-hyeon Lee, Dong-il Bae
  • Patent number: 7119384
    Abstract: The invention relates to a field effect transistor in which the planar channel region on the upper surface of the elevation is extended in width by means of additional vertical channel regions on the lateral surfaces of the elevation. Said additional vertical channel regions connect directly to the planar channel region (vertical extended channel regions). Said field effect transistor has the advantage that a significant increase in the effective channel width for the current flow ION can be guaranteed relative to conventional transistor structures used up until the present, without having to accept a reduction in the achievable integration density. Said field effect transistor furthermore has a low reverse current IOFF. The above advantages are achieved without the thickness of the gate insulators up to the region of the charge transfer tunnels having to be reduced or a reduced stability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2002
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Assignee: Infineon Technologies AG
    Inventors: Martin Popp, Frank Richter, Dietmar Temmler, Andreas Wich-Glasen
  • Patent number: 7119442
    Abstract: A semiconductor device comprising a first insulating layer formed above a semiconductor substrate, and comprising a first insulating material, a second insulating material and a hole, a relative dielectric constant of the first insulating material being 3 or less, a Young's modulus of the first insulating material being 10 GPa or less, a linear expansivity of the first insulating material being greater than 30×10?6° C.?1, and a linear expansivity of the second insulating material being 30×10?6° C.?1 or less, and a second insulating layer formed on the first insulating layer, the second insulating layer having a groove connected to the hole, wherein a linear expansivity ? of the first insulating layer within 6 ?m from the hole is 30×10?6° C.?1 or less, where ? = ? i = 1 ? v i ? ? i , vi and ?i are a volume ratio and a linear expansivity of an i-th insulating material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2006
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Sachiyo Ito, Masahiko Hasunuma
  • Patent number: 7112462
    Abstract: The present invention relates to a semiconductor device formed in a self-light-emitting apparatus having a substrate and a plurality of self-light-emitting elements formed on the substrate, the semiconductor device being used to drive one of the self-light-emitting elements. The semiconductor device includes an active layer of semiconductor material, in which a source region and a drain region are formed, a source electrode having a multi-layered structure including an upper side layer of titanium nitride and a lower side layer of a high melting point metal having low resistance, the source electrode electrically being coupled to the source region, a drain electrode having a multi-layered structure including an upper side layer of titan nitride and a lower side layer of a high melting point metal having low resistance, the source electrode electrically being coupled to said drain region, an insulation layer formed on the active layer, and a gate electrode formed on the insulation layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignees: TDK Corporation, Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Michio Arai, Yukio Yamauchi
  • Patent number: 7112836
    Abstract: A horizontal electrode having a small cross-section makes electrical contact with a chalcogenide memory element. The dimensions of the cross-section are controlled by conventional deposit/etch semiconductor processing steps. The resulting memory element can be driven by a CMOS steering element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 17, 2004
    Date of Patent: September 26, 2006
    Assignee: Macronix International Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Yi Chou Chen
  • Patent number: 7109569
    Abstract: Structures and methods are provided for dual referenced microstrip structures having low reference discontinuities between a microstrip trace referenced to a primary reference plane as compared to a microstrip trace referenced to a secondary reference plane.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2006
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: James Breisch, Chee-Yee Chung, Alex Waizman, Teong Guan Yew
  • Patent number: 7102181
    Abstract: A method of forming a dual gate fin-type field effect transistor (FinFET) structure patterns silicon fins over an insulator and patterns a gate conductor at an angle to the fins. The gate conductor is formed laterally adjacent to and over center portions of the fins. The gate conductor is planarized such that the gate conductor is separated into distinct gate conductor portions that are separated by the fins. These gate conductor portions include front gates and back gates. The front gates and the back gates alternate along the structure, such that each fin has a front gate on one side and a back gate on the opposite side. Then front gate wiring is formed to the front gates and back gate wiring is formed to the back gates.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2006
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Edward J. Nowak, Richard Q. Williams