Patents Examined by Joseph Galvin, III
  • Patent number: 9577007
    Abstract: An LED module is disclosed containing an integrated driver transistor (e.g, a MOSFET) in series with an LED. In one embodiment, LED layers are grown over a substrate. The transistor regions are formed over the same substrate. After the LED layers, such as GaN layers, are grown to form the LED portion, a central area of the LED is etched away to expose a semiconductor surface in which the transistor regions are formed. A conductor connects the transistor in series with the LED. Another node of the transistor is electrically coupled to an electrode on the bottom surface of the substrate. In one embodiment, an anode of the LED is connected to one terminal of the module, one current carrying node of the transistor is connected to a second terminal of the module, and the control terminal of the transistor is connected to a third terminal of the module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Nthdegree Technologies Worldwide Inc.
    Inventors: Richard Austin Blanchard, Bradley Steven Oraw
  • Patent number: 9572222
    Abstract: LED modules are disclosed having a control MOSFET, or other transistor, in series with an LED. In one embodiment, a MOSFET wafer is bonded to an LED wafer and singulated to form thousands of active 3-terminal LED modules with the same footprint as a single LED. Despite the different forward voltages of red, green, and blue LEDs, RGB modules may be connected in parallel and their control voltages staggered at 60 Hz or greater to generate a single perceived color, such as white. The RGB modules may be connected in a panel for general illumination or for a color display. A single dielectric layer in a panel may encapsulate all the RGB modules to form a compact and inexpensive panel. Various addressing techniques are described for both a color display and a lighting panel. Various circuits are described for reducing the sensitivity of the LED to variations in input voltage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Nthdegree Technologies Worldwide Inc.
    Inventor: Bradley S. Oraw
  • Patent number: 9570241
    Abstract: Disclosed are a dye-sensitized solar cell module and a method of manufacturing the same. The dye-sensitized solar cell module includes a working electrode formed by stacking a collector and a photo-electrode to which a dye is adsorbed on a transparent conductive substrate; a counter electrode formed by stacking a collector and a catalytic electrode on a transparent conductive substrate; and an electrolyte filled in a space between the working electrode and the counter electrode sealed by a sealant. A glass substrate for the working electrode of glass substrates forming the transparent conductive substrates for the electrodes is a thin glass plate substrate thinner than the glass substrate for the working electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2017
    Assignee: Hyundai Motor Company
    Inventors: Mi Yeon Song, Won Jung Kim, Ki Chun Lee, Sang Hak Kim, Ji Yong Lee, Yong Jun Jang, Yong-gu Kim, In Woo Song
  • Patent number: 9564324
    Abstract: The inventive concepts provide methods of forming a pattern. In the method, a block copolymer layer may be formed on a neutral layer having an uneven structure and then phase separation is induced. The neutral layer may have an affinity for all of a hydrophilic polymer and a hydrophobic polymer, so that vertical cultivation of phases of the block copolymer may be realized on the uneven structure. Thus, a self-assembled phenomenon may be induced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 20, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Eunsung Kim, Jaewoo Nam, Chulho Shin
  • Patent number: 9564408
    Abstract: An apparatus including a planar semiconductor substrate including a plurality of devices and a first pattern of electrical contacts formed on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate; and a plurality of layers of conductive material alternating between dielectric material on the first surface of the semiconductor substrate, the plurality of layers of conductive material including a wiring layer including a second pattern of electrical contacts, wherein the second surface of the semiconductor substrate includes openings to the first pattern of electrical contacts. A method including forming a space transformer including a semiconductor substrate including, on a device side, a device region, a first pattern of electrical contacts, and at least one routing layer and a pad layer including a second pattern of electrical contacts; and forming openings through the space transformer to the first pattern of electrical contacts on the semiconductor substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2017
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Aleksandar Aleksov, Johanna M. Swan
  • Patent number: 9559677
    Abstract: A semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of stacked chips. Each of the plurality of stacked chips includes a delay chain. Each of the plurality of stacked chips comprises a plurality of Through-Vias, wherein one of the plurality of Through-Vias formed in a first one of the plurality of stacked chips and electrically coupled to a predetermined location of a first delay chain on the first one of the plurality of stacked chips and one of the plurality of Through-Vias formed in a neighboring one of the plurality of stacked chips and electrically coupled to a predetermined location of a delay chain on the neighboring one of the plurality of stacked chips are configured to electrically couple the first one of the plurality of stacked chips to the neighboring one of the plurality of stacked chips. A signal transmitted from a first one of the plurality of stacked chips generates a feedback signal to the first one of the plurality of stacked chips through one or more of the plurality of Through-Vias.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: SK HYNIX INC.
    Inventors: Sang Ho Lee, Ki Chang Kwean
  • Patent number: 9559023
    Abstract: Systems and methods for reducing beam instability in laser annealing are disclosed. The method includes: directing a conditioned laser beam through an opening in an aperture using a beam-redirecting element; forming a line image on the surface of the semiconductor wafer by imaging the aperture onto the surface, thereby locally heating the surface to form an annealing temperature distribution; detecting a thermal emission from the locally heated wafer surface; determining the annealing temperature distribution from the detected thermal emission; determining from the annealing temperature distribution a line-image intensity profile that includes a time-varying amount of slope; and adjusting the beam-redirecting element to redirect the laser beam to reduce or eliminate the time-varying amount of slope in the line-image intensity profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Ultratech, Inc.
    Inventors: James T. McWhirter, Andrew Hawryluk, Serguei Anikitichev, Masoud Safa
  • Patent number: 9559027
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a housing with a fragile portion. The fragile unit or portion has a resistance to a pressure or a melting point temperature that is lower than other portions of the housing. The semiconductor device further includes a plurality of semiconductor elements disposed inside the housing. Each semiconductor element includes a semiconductor element region having a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. A first electrode is provided on the first surface and a second electrode is provided on the second surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2017
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventor: Yoshimitsu Kuwahara
  • Patent number: 9553095
    Abstract: A system-on-chip (SOC) device comprises a first capacitor in a first region, a second capacitor in a second region, and may further comprise a third capacitor in a third region, and any additional number of capacitors in additional regions. The capacitors may be of different shapes and sizes. A region may comprise more than one capacitor. Each capacitor in a region has a top electrode, a bottom electrode, and a capacitor insulator. The top electrodes of all the capacitors are formed in a common process, while the bottom electrodes of all the capacitors are formed in a common process. The capacitor insulator may have different number of sub-layers, formed with different materials or different thickness. The capacitors may be formed in an inter-layer dielectric layer or in an inter-metal dielectric layer. The regions may be a mixed signal region, an analog region, a radio frequency region, a dynamic random access memory region, and so forth.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2017
    Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kuo-Chi Tu, Wen-Chuan Chiang, Chen-Jong Wang
  • Patent number: 9548349
    Abstract: Embodiments disclose a method of fabrication and a semiconductor structure comprising a Metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor. The method of fabrication includes depositing a first conductive material on a semiconductor substrate. A first dielectric material is deposited on the first conductive material. A second conductive material is deposited on the first dielectric material. The top plate is formed by etching the second conductive material. The bottom plate is formed by etching a portion of the first conductive material. At least one opening is formed in the first dielectric layer down to the first conductive material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2014
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Max G. Levy, Gary L. Milo, David C. Thomas
  • Patent number: 9543273
    Abstract: A method of forming a reduced volume interconnect for a chip stack including multiple silicon layers, the method including: forming multiple conductive structures, each of at least a subset of the conductive structures having a volume of conductive material for a corresponding under bump metallurgy pad onto which the conductive structure is transferred that is configured such that a ratio of an unreflowed diameter of the conductive structure to a diameter of the corresponding pad is about one third-to-one or less; transferring the conductive structures to the silicon layers; stacking the silicon layers in a substantially vertical dimension such that each of the conductive structures on a given silicon layer is aligned with a corresponding electrical contact location on an underside of an adjacent silicon layer; and heating the interconnect so as to metallurgically bond multiple electrical contact locations of adjacent silicon layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: January 10, 2017
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Peter A. Gruber, Katsuyuki Sakuma, Da-Yuan Shih
  • Patent number: 9530878
    Abstract: III-N transistors with recessed gates. An epitaxial stack includes a doped III-N source/drain layer and a III-N etch stop layer disposed between a the source/drain layer and a III-N channel layer. An etch process, e.g., utilizing photochemical oxidation, selectively etches the source/drain layer over the etch stop layer. A gate electrode is disposed over the etch stop layer to form a recessed-gate III-N HEMT. At least a portion of the etch stop layer may be oxidized with a gate electrode over the oxidized etch stop layer for a recessed gate III-N MOS-HEMT including a III-N oxide. A high-k dielectric may be formed over the oxidized etch stop layer with a gate electrode over the high-k dielectric to form a recessed gate III-N MOS-HEMT having a composite gate dielectric stack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2016
    Assignee: Intel Corporation
    Inventors: Han Wui Then, Marko Radosavljevic, Uday Shah, Niloy Mukherjee, Ravi Pillarisetty, Benjamin Chu-Kung, Jack T. Kavalieros, Robert S. Chau
  • Patent number: 9520423
    Abstract: An image sensor includes a substrate including a first surface and a second surface, a first device isolation layer disposed in the substrate and defining a plurality of pixels in the substrate, and having a lower surface adjacent the first surface of the substrate and an upper surface adjacent the second surface of the substrate. Each of the pixels includes a photoelectric conversion element, a floating diffusion region adjacent the first surface of the substrate, and a grid pattern on the second surface of the substrate. At least one of the grid patterns is not vertically aligned with the first device isolation layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2016
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yun Ki Lee, Joonkyoung Lee
  • Patent number: 9508814
    Abstract: An integrated circuit structure includes a gate stack over a substrate. The integrated circuit structure also includes a gate spacer over a sidewall of the gate stack. The integrated circuit structure further includes a contact etch stop layer (CESL) having a bottom portion over the substrate and a sidewall portion over a sidewall of the gate spacer. The sidewall portion has a first thickness less than a second thickness of the bottom portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventor: Shiang-Bau Wang
  • Patent number: 9502242
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure generally provide a method and apparatus for forming an IGZO active layer within a thin film transistor (TFT) device. In one embodiment, a method is provided for forming an IGZO active layer on a dielectric surface using a PECVD deposition process. In one embodiment, a method is provided for pretreating and passivating the dielectric surface for receiving the PECVD formed IGZO layer. In another embodiment, a method is provided for treating a PECVD formed IGZO layer after depositing said layer. In another embodiment, a method is provided for forming a multi-layer or complex layering structure of IGZO, within a PECVD processing chamber, for optimizing TFT electrical characteristics such as carrier density, contact resistance, and gate dielectric interfacial properties. In yet another embodiment, a method is provided for forming integrated layers for a TFT including IGZO within an in-situ environment of a cluster tool.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: APPLIED MATERIALS, INC.
    Inventors: Tae Kyung Won, John M. White, Soo Young Choi, Jung-Chi (Eric) Lu
  • Patent number: 9496227
    Abstract: In one embodiment, an integrated circuit with a signal-processing region is disclosed. The integrated circuit comprises a silicon-on-insulator die singulated from a silicon-on-insulator wafer. The silicon on insulator die comprises an active layer, an insulator layer, a substrate, and a strengthening layer. The substrate consists of an excavated substrate region, and a support region, the support region is in contact with the insulator layer. The excavated region covers a majority of the signal-processing region of the integrated circuit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Stuart B. Molin, Paul A. Nygaard, Michael A. Stuber
  • Patent number: 9496154
    Abstract: A microelectronic component (110, 120) has a contact pad (110C, 120C, 920C) recessed in a cavity (410) and covered by underfill tape (130). The cavity has a void (410V) below the underfill tape. A protruding contact pad of another microelectronic component ruptures the underfill tape to enter the cavity and bond to the recessed contact pad. The void helps in rupturing the underfill tape, thus reducing the amount of underfill residue between the two contact pads and improving the contact resistance. Also provided is a microelectronic component having a substrate with a cavity and having a through-substrate via extending into the cavity. Other features are also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: Invensas Corporation
    Inventors: Eric S. Tosaya, Rajesh Katkar, Liang Wang, Cyprian Emeka Uzoh
  • Patent number: 9496283
    Abstract: A transistor includes an active region supported by a substrate and having a source region, a channel region and a drain region. A gate stack extends over the channel region and a first sidewall surrounds the gate stack. A raised source region and a raised drain region are provided over the source and drain regions, respectively, of the active region adjacent the first sidewall. A second sidewall peripherally surrounds each of the raised source region and raised drain region. The second sidewall extends above a top surface of the raised source region and raised drain region to define regions laterally delimited by the first and second sidewalls. A conductive material fills the regions to form a source contact and a drain contact to the raised source region and raised drain region, respectively.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2016
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventor: John Hongguang Zhang
  • Patent number: 9472692
    Abstract: An integrated circuit chip is mounted on top of a base wafer, and a protection wafer is mounted on top of the integrated circuit chip. An encapsulation block is formed around the integrated circuit chip and the protection wafer and on a peripheral part of the front face of the base wafer. The encapsulation block includes a first encapsulation ring arranged around the integrated circuit chip and the protection wafer, having an annular beading protruding with respect to the front face of the protection wafer and forming a peripheral groove (24) recessed with respect to this protruding annular beading. A second encapsulation ring of the encapsulation block fills the peripheral groove of the first encapsulation ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS (GRENOBLE 2) SAS
    Inventors: Marika Sorrieul, Karine Saxod
  • Patent number: 9472490
    Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an integrated circuit (IC) structure with a recessed solder bump area, and methods of forming the same. An IC structure according to embodiments of the present disclosure can include: a semiconductor material, wherein an upper surface of the semiconductor material includes a non-recessed area and a recessed area laterally separated from each other, the recessed area of the upper surface being shaped to receive a solder bump therein; at least one first through-semiconductor via (TSV) positioned within the semiconductor material and including an upper surface protruding from the recessed area of the semiconductor material; and a metal layer formed over the recessed area and electrically connected to the at least one first TSV.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2016
    Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
    Inventors: Timothy M. Sullivan, Glen E. Richard, Stephen P. Ayotte, Timothy D. Sullivan