Abstract: An integrated circuit contains lower components in the substrate, a PMD layer, upper components over the PMD layer, lower contacts in the PMD layer connecting some upper components to some lower components, an ILD layer over the upper components, metal interconnect lines over the ILD layer, and upper contacts connecting some upper components to some metal interconnect lines, and also includes annular stacked contacts of lower annular contacts aligned with upper annular contacts. The lower contacts and upper contacts each have a metal liner and a contact metal on the liner. The lower annular contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of PMD material, and the upper contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of ILD material. The annular stacked contacts connect the metal interconnects to the lower components.

Abstract: An integrated circuit contains lower components in the substrate, a PMD layer, upper components over the PMD layer, lower contacts in the PMD layer connecting some upper components to some lower components, an ILD layer over the upper components, metal interconnect lines over the ILD layer, and upper contacts connecting some upper components to some metal interconnect lines, and also includes annular stacked contacts of lower annular contacts aligned with upper annular contacts. The lower contacts and upper contacts each have a metal liner and a contact metal on the liner. The lower annular contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of PMD material, and the upper contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of ILD material. The annular stacked contacts connect the metal interconnects to the lower components.

Abstract: An integrated circuit contains lower components in the substrate, a PMD layer, upper components over the PMD layer, lower contacts in the PMD layer connecting some upper components to some lower components, an ILD layer over the upper components, metal interconnect lines over the ILD layer, and upper contacts connecting some upper components to some metal interconnect lines, and also includes annular stacked contacts of lower annular contacts aligned with upper annular contacts. The lower contacts and upper contacts each have a metal liner and a contact metal on the liner. The lower annular contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of PMD material, and the upper contacts have at least one ring of liner metal and contact metal surrounding a pillar of ILD material. The annular stacked contacts connect the metal interconnects to the lower components.

Abstract: A deglitch circuit utilizes a first flip-flop coupled to the input signal and a second flip-flop coupled to the output of a circuit with feedback from the output to gates to control first and second inputs to the first flip-flop. In an alternative arrangement, a counter is provided between the output of the first flip-flop and the input to the second flip-flop in order to provide flexibility and the possibility of a longer delay for the circuit.

Abstract: A deglitch circuit utilizes a first flip-flop coupled to the input signal and a second flip-flop coupled to the output of a circuit with feedback from the output to gates to control first and second inputs to the first flip-flop. In an alternative arrangement, a counter is provided between the output of the first flip-flop and the input to the second flip-flop in order to provide flexibility and the possibility of a longer delay for the circuit.

Abstract: An adaptive clock throttle 600 interfacing a clock generator 601 generating a high speed clock and a processing engine 602 operating in response to a processing clock. Adaptive clock throttle 600 generates a plurality of lower speed clocks from the high speed clock, estimates a duty cycle of the processing engine, and selectively gates one of the lower speed clocks to the processing engine as the processing clock to increase the duty cycle of the processing engine.

Abstract: A method of extracting a clock from a biphase encoded bit stream includes the step of detecting a stream of samples each having a sample size measured between consecutive bit phase transitions. A sample length is determined for each sample, the sample length approximating a number of least common multiples in the corresponding sample size. A preamble is detected from the sample lengths of a sequence of the samples and decoded to determine an expected logic level of the clock following a transition at an expected clock edge. The expected level of the clock is gated with the biphase encoded data to generate a control signal in advance of the opening of the time window. The control signal is then gated with the biphase encoded data to extract the clock edge after the time window has opened.

Abstract: A method of extracting a clock from a biphase encoded bit stream includes the step of detecting a stream of samples each having a sample size measured between consecutive bit phase transitions. A sample length is determined for each sample, the sample length approximating a number of least common multiples in the corresponding sample size. A preamble is detected from the sample lengths of a sequence of the samples and decoded to determine an expected logic level of the clock following a transition at an expected clock edge. The expected level of the clock is gated with the biphase encoded data to generate a control signal in advance of the opening of the time window. The control signal is then gated with the biphase encoded data to extract the clock edge after the time window has opened.