Patents Examined by Phallaka Kik
  • Patent number: 11727177
    Abstract: A method executed at least partially by a processor includes creating a plurality of groups of paths from a plurality of paths in an integrated circuit (IC) layout diagram. Each group among the plurality of groups has a unique dominant feature among a plurality of features of the plurality of paths. The dominant feature of a group among the plurality of groups is slack. The method further includes testing at least one path in a group among the plurality of groups. The method also includes, in response to the testing indicating that the at least one path fails, modifying at least one of the IC layout diagram, at least a portion of at least one library having cells included in the IC layout diagram, or a manufacturing process for manufacturing an IC corresponding to the IC layout diagram.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignees: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD., TSMC NANJING COMPANY, LIMITED
    Inventors: Ankita Patidar, Sandeep Kumar Goel, Yun-Han Lee
  • Patent number: 11727183
    Abstract: A method (of fabricating a power grid (PG) arrangement in a semiconductor) includes: forming a first layer including conductive lines (C_1st lines) which include interspersed alpha C_1st lines and beta C_1st lines designated correspondingly for first and second reference voltages; and forming a second layer over the first layer, the second layer including segments (C_2nd segments) which include interspersed alpha C_2nd segments and beta C_2nd segments designated correspondingly for the first and second reference voltages; and, relative to the first direction, each beta C_2nd segment being substantially asymmetrically between corresponding adjacent ones of the alpha C_2nd segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 15, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Hiranmay Biswas, Chung-Hsing Wang, Chin-Shen Lin, Kuo-Nan Yang
  • Patent number: 11720733
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for parameterization of physical dimensions of discrete circuit components for component definitions that define discrete circuit components. The component definitions may be selected for use in a device design. When a parametrization of a particular version of a discrete circuit component definition is changed, the version level of the device design is also changed and the circuit layout for the device design is physically verified for the new version level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Evan Jeffrey, Julian Shaw Kelly, Joshua Yousouf Mutus
  • Patent number: 11714947
    Abstract: A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit includes adjusting a first spacing between an adjacent pair of routing tracks in a first set of routing tracks to be equal to a second spacing, adjusting a third spacing between an adjacent pair of routing tracks in a second set of routing tracks to be equal to a fourth spacing, placing a first and second pair of conductive patterns on the corresponding first and second set of routing tracks, forming a first set of conductive structures based on the first pair of conductive patterns, and a second set of conductive structures based on the second pair of conductive patterns. A first and second cell have a same cell height that is a non-integer multiple of a minimum pitch. One spacing of a first set of spacings is different from another spacing of the first set of spacings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 1, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Mahantesh Hanchinal, Shu-Yi Ying, Chi Wei Hu, Min-Yuan Tsai
  • Patent number: 11709984
    Abstract: A compilation system accesses a compilation operations that can be used by a compiler to compile a design under test (DUT). The compilation system can determine a sequence of the compilation operations for the compiler to perform the compilation. The compilation system can detect a failure at a first compilation operation of the sequence of operations during the compilation of the DUT, and the compilation of the DUT can be paused after the failure is detected. The compilation system can determine a second compilation operation of the accessed compilation operations based on one or more netlist parameters of the DUT's netlist. The compilation system then modifies the sequence of compilation operations based on the second compilation operation and resumes the compilation of the DUT at the second compilation operation using the modified sequence of compilation operations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 25, 2023
    Assignee: Synopsys, Inc.
    Inventor: Guillaume Jean Baptiste Desplechain
  • Patent number: 11704461
    Abstract: Embodiments include dynamic control of coverage by a verification testbench. Aspects include obtaining a design under test to be verified by the verification testbench and obtaining one or more testcases for execution by the verification testbench on the design under test. Aspects also include obtaining a plurality of triggers corresponding to the design under test, wherein each of the plurality of triggers includes an activation condition, a deactivation condition and a coverage. Aspects further include simulating, by the verification testbench, execution of the one or more testcases by the design under test. Based on detecting the activation condition of one of the plurality of triggers, aspects also include recording, in a coverage database, data specified in the coverage corresponding the one of the plurality of triggers until the deactivation condition is detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Swathi Priya S, Sandeep Korrapati, Pretty Mariam Jacob, Anusha Reddy Rangareddygari, Puli Srivani, sreekanth reddy Kadapala
  • Patent number: 11694007
    Abstract: Automated circuit and layout generation is disclosed. Various embodiments may include a computer system and/or method for generating a circuit layout comprising specifying a circuit schematic to be converted to a circuit layout, receiving a layout script associated with the circuit schematic, the layout script configured to position a plurality of layout instances generated from the circuit schematic, converting the circuit schematic into the plurality of layout instances; and positioning the plurality of layout instances based on the layout script to produce the circuit layout. A circuit may be produced by fabricating a circuit using the layout.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Celera, Inc.
    Inventors: Karen Mason, John Mason
  • Patent number: 11681854
    Abstract: A method is disclosed including: generating, based on design information for an integrated circuit, a circuit design that includes an initial power delivery network (PDN) for the integrated circuit; performing a pre-layout simulation to the circuit design that includes the initial power delivery network, to determine whether the circuit design meets a predetermined specification; generating a circuit layout of the integrated circuit when the circuit design meets the predetermined specification; and adding at least one additional conductive pillar or at least one additional power rail in the initial power delivery network according to a relationship of a pillar density of the initial power delivery network and a maximum pillar density when the circuit design does not meet the predetermined specification.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Chung-Chieh Yang, Tai-Yi Chen, Yun-Ru Chen, Yung-Chow Peng
  • Patent number: 11682915
    Abstract: A system for charging a battery carried by a vehicle may include a charging box for coupling to a vehicle chassis and including interface electrical contacts electrically coupled to the battery. The system may also include a charge coupler including coupler electrical contacts for electrically coupling to the interface electrical contacts from under the vehicle and configured to be coupled to an electrical power supply. The charging box may include an interface activation surface, and the charge coupler may include a housing for enclosing the coupler electrical contacts and including a base for supporting the coupler electrical contacts, a coupler activation surface opposite the base, an opening, and a door configured to open the opening to expose the coupler electrical contacts as the interface activation surface contacts the coupler activation surface and moves the coupler activation surface toward the base.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 20, 2023
    Assignee: Zoox, Inc.
    Inventors: Moritz Boecker, Bryan Emrys Booth, Timothy David Kentley-Klay, Richard Luke Osellame, Christopher John Stoffel
  • Patent number: 11675945
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for generation and testing of integrated circuit designs with clock crossings between clock domains and reset crossings between reset domains. These may allow for the rapid design and testing (e.g. silicon testing) of processors and SoCs. Clock crossings may be automatically generated between modules, inferring the values of design parameters, such as a signaling protocol (e.g. a bus protocol), directionality, and/or a clock crossing type (e.g., synchronous, rational divider, or asynchronous), of a clock crossing. Reset crossings may be automatically generated in a similar manner. For example, implicit classes may be used to generate clock crossings or reset crossings in a flexible manner. For example, these system and methods may be used to rapidly connect a custom processor design, including one or more IP cores, to a standard input/output shell for a SoC design to facilitate rapid silicon testing of the custom processor design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: SiFive, Inc.
    Inventors: Henry Cook, Ernest L. Edgar, Ryan Macdonald, Wesley Waylon Terpstra
  • Patent number: 11677259
    Abstract: Various embodiments described herein use a set of capacitor sets (e.g., capacitor banks) in a power backup architecture for a memory sub-system, where each capacitor set can be individually checked for a health condition (e.g., in parallel) to determine their respective health after the memory sub-system has completed a boot process. In response to determining that at least one capacitor set has failed the health condition (or a certain number of capacitor sets have failed the health condition), the memory sub-system can perform certain operations prior to primary power loss to the memory sub-system (e.g., preemptively performs a data backup process to ensure data integrity) and can adjust the operational mode of the memory sub-system (e.g., switch it from read-write mode to read-only mode).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Micron Technology, Inc.
    Inventors: Vehid Suljic, Matthew D. Rowley
  • Patent number: 11675947
    Abstract: A network device includes processing circuitry configured to: determine whether to initiate a temporal reconfiguration or a spatial reconfiguration of a partial reconfiguration slot on a programmable device, and initiate the temporal reconfiguration or the spatial reconfiguration of the partial reconfiguration slot in response to determining that the temporal reconfiguration or the spatial reconfiguration is to be initiated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
    Inventors: Bogdan Uscumlic, Yu-Chia Tseng, Gopalasingham Aravinthan
  • Patent number: 11675961
    Abstract: A semiconductor cell structure includes four pairs of conductive segments, a first gate-strip, and a second gate-strip. A first conductive segment is configured to have a first supply voltage, and a second conductive segment is configured to have a second supply voltage. Each of the first gate-strip and the second gate-strip intersects an active zone over a channel region of a transistor. The first gate-strip is conductively connected to the second conductive segment. The semiconductor cell structure also includes a first dummy gate-strip and a second dummy gate-strip. The first dummy gate-strip separates from the first gate-strip by one CPP. The second dummy gate-strip separates from the second gate-strip by one CPP. The first gate-strip and the second gate-strip are separated from each other by two CPPs. The dummy gate-strip and the second dummy gate-strip are separated from each other by four CPPs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.
    Inventors: Shun Li Chen, Li-Chun Tien, Ting Yu Chen, Wei-Ling Chang
  • Patent number: 11669665
    Abstract: A logic network for an integrated circuit is synthesized as follows. The logic network is mapped to a network of lookup tables (LUTs). The LUT mapping is based at least in part on estimated areas of the LUTs. The individual LUTs in the network are improved (LUT optimization), for example using various Boolean optimization techniques. The network of improved LUTs is then reduced to a gate-level netlist of standard cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Synopsys, Inc.
    Inventors: Luca Gaetano Amaru, Vinicius Neves Possani, Eleonora Testa, Felipe dos Santos Marranghello, Christopher Casares, Jiong Luo, Patrick Vuillod
  • Patent number: 11663385
    Abstract: Methods and systems for verifying, via formal verification, a hardware design for a data transformation pipeline comprising one or more data transformation elements that perform a data transformation on one or more inputs, wherein the formal verification is performed under conditions that simplify the data transformations calculations that the formal verification tool has to perform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventor: Sam Elliott
  • Patent number: 11640489
    Abstract: A method, apparatus, computer device, and storage medium for automatic design of analog circuits based on tree structure. The method includes: setting the maximum height and growth direction of the tree structure; randomly calling the node from the function node library as the parent node; randomly calling the node from the function node library and the port node library as the child according to the growth direction node; if the child node is a terminal node, generating a tree structure; checking the tree structure, if the tree structure satisfies the preset conditions, obtaining the circuit topology and device parameter that conform to the circuit rules; evolving the circuit topology and device parameter to generate an analog circuit. The embodiments achieve the effect of making the tree structure of the designed analog circuit more reasonable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 2, 2023
    Assignee: SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
    Inventors: Xinming Shi, Xin Yao
  • Patent number: 11630936
    Abstract: This invention relates to a robust optimal design method for photovoltaic cells. Firstly, the deterministic optimal model is established, which is solved by Monte Carlo method to obtain the maximum output power value of optimization objective and its corresponding design variable value, and then the design variable value obtained from deterministic optimization is deemed as the initial point of the mean value of the robust optimal design variable. Later, the robust optimal model is solved by Monte Carlo method in order to obtain the mean value of design variable, and then appropriate materials and manufacturing techniques are selected for corresponding photovoltaic components according to the design variable obtained, so as to achieve the robust optimal design of photovoltaic cells. In fact, this invention improves the output stability and reliability of photovoltaic cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 18, 2023
    Assignee: Northwestern Polytechnical University
    Inventors: Feng Zhang, Mingying Wu, Xu Zhang, Dongyue Wang, Xiayu Xu, Lei Cheng
  • Patent number: 11625521
    Abstract: A method for debugging a logic system design including a target module to be debugged. The method includes receiving a first gate-level netlist associated with the logic system design and a second gate-level netlist associated with the target module that are generated based on a description of the logic system design, obtaining runtime information of an input signal of the target module by running the first gate-level netlist, and obtaining runtime information of the target module by running the second gate-level netlist based on the runtime information of the input signal of the target module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: XEPIC CORPORATION LIMITED
    Inventor: Yan Lu
  • Patent number: 11620424
    Abstract: A system and method utilized to receive an integrated circuit (IC) design and generating a graph based on a plurality of sub-circuits of the IC design. Further, one or more candidate sub-circuits are determined from the plurality of sub-circuits based on the graph. Additionally, one or more sub-circuits are identified from the one or more candidate sub-circuits based on a number of transistors and a number of edges within each of the plurality of sub-circuits. An indication of the identified one or more sub-circuits is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Synopsys, Inc.
    Inventors: Mayukh Bhattacharya, Sayandeep Sanyal, Amit Patra, Pallab Dasgupta
  • Patent number: 11620428
    Abstract: Various embodiments provide a system for performing operations that comprise accessing an integrated circuit design that includes a clock tree interconnecting a clock source to a plurality of clock sinks. The operations include receiving a request to adjust a present timing offset of the clock tree to a target timing offset. In response, a group of clock sinks to be adjusted are identified to satisfy the request. The clock tree is then modified by moving a terminal of the group from a first location in the clock tree to a second location in the clock tree to update the clock tree. An indication is provided that the updated clock tree has been modified and complies with the target timing offset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Mark Chapman, Zhuo Li