Patents by Inventor Kazumasa Yanagisawa

Kazumasa Yanagisawa has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20100203724
    Abstract: A manufacturing technique is disclosed for producing a semiconductor integrated circuit device having plural layers of buried wirings, and such that there is prevented the occurrence of a discontinuity caused by stress migration at an interface between a plug connected at a bottom thereof to a buried wiring and the buried wiring. For example, in the case where the width of a first Cu wiring is not smaller than about 0.9 ?m and is smaller than about 1.44 ?m, and the width of a second Cu wiring and the diameter of a plug are about 0.18 ?m, there are arranged two or more plugs which connect the first wirings and the second Cu wirings electrically with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 21, 2010
    Publication date: August 12, 2010
    Inventors: Takako FUNAKOSHI, Eiichi Murakami, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Kan Takeuchi, Hideo Aoki, Hizuru Yamaguchi, Takayuki Oshima, Kazuyuki Tsunokuni, Kousuke Okuyama
  • Publication number: 20100019382
    Abstract: A technique permitting the reduction in size of a semiconductor device is provided. In a BGA type semiconductor device with a semiconductor chip flip-chip-bonded onto a wiring substrate, bump electrodes of the semiconductor chip are coupled to lands formed at an upper surface of the wiring substrate. The lands at the upper surface of the wiring substrate are coupled electrically to solder balls formed on a lower surface of the wiring substrate. Therefore, the lands include first type lands with lead-out lines coupled thereto and second type lands with lead-out lines not coupled thereto but with vias formed just thereunder. The lands are arrayed in six or more rows at equal pitches in an advancing direction of the rows. However, a row-to-row pitch is not made an equal pitch. In land rows which are likely to cause a short-circuit, the pitch between adjacent rows is made large, while in land rows which are difficult to cause a short-circuit, the pitch between adjacent rows is made small.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 5, 2009
    Publication date: January 28, 2010
    Inventors: Takashi MIWA, Michiaki Sugiyama, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Publication number: 20090322402
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit device provided with a first circuit block BLK1, a second circuit block DRV1 and a conversion circuit MIO1 for connecting the first circuit block to the second circuit block. The first circuit block includes a first mode for applying a supply voltage and a second mode for shutting off the supply voltage. The conversion circuit is provided with a function for maintaining the potential of an input node of the second circuit block at an operation potential, thereby suppressing a penetrating current flow when the first circuit block is in the second mode. The conversion circuit (MIO1 to MIO4) are commonly used for connecting circuit blocks.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2009
    Publication date: December 31, 2009
    Applicant: RENESAS TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroyuki MIZUNO, Yusuke KANNO, Kazumasa YANAGISAWA, Yoshihiko YASU, Nobuhiro OODAIRA
  • Patent number: 7612604
    Abstract: A body bias control system allows for independent design of a functional module, thereby reducing the burden of designing the module. The body bias control system provides a switch circuit having an area in which the body bias is controlled independently of its outside portion, for controlling the supply of body bias in the vicinity of the area. Preferably three types of switches are provided for switching the body bias to suitable levels for a standby mode, a mode of normal operation and a mode of high-speed operation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignees: Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi ULSI Systems Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Masayuki Miyazaki, Yusuke Kanno, Goichi Ono, Toshinobu Shinbo, Yoshihiko Yasu, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Takashi Kuraishi
  • Patent number: 7612601
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit device provided with a first circuit block BLK1, a second circuit block DRV1 and a conversion circuit MIO1 for connecting the first circuit block to the second circuit block. The first circuit block includes a first mode for applying a supply voltage and a second mode for shutting off the supply voltage. The conversion circuit is provided with a function for maintaining the potential of an input node of the second circuit block at an operation potential, thereby suppressing a penetrating current flow when the first circuit block is in the second mode. The conversion circuit (MIO1 to MIO4) are commonly used for connecting circuit blocks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2009
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Mizuno, Yusuke Kanno, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Yohihiko Yasu, Nobuhiro Oodaira
  • Publication number: 20090267686
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit device enhanced in design efficiency while achieving multi-functionalization and power saving is to be provided. The semiconductor integrated circuit device has first through third circuit blocks, and is placed in a first power supply state in which the operation of internal circuits in the first circuit block is guaranteed in accordance with an instruction from the third circuit block or a second power supply state in which the operation of the internal circuits is not guaranteed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2009
    Publication date: October 29, 2009
    Inventors: Yuri Azuma, Yoshihiko Yasu, Yasuto Igarashi, Takashi Kuraishi, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Publication number: 20090073753
    Abstract: At the time of, for example, a set operation (SET) for making a phase-change element in a crystalline state, a pulse of a voltage Vreset required for melting the element is applied to the phase-change element, and subsequently a pulse of a voltage Vset that is lower than Vreset and is required for crystallizing the element is applied thereto. And, the magnitude of this voltage Vset is then changed depending on the ambient temperature so that the magnitude of the voltage Vset is small as the temperature becomes high (TH). In this manner, a margin of a write operation between the set operation and a reset operation (RESET) for making the element to be in amorphous state is improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 21, 2005
    Publication date: March 19, 2009
    Inventors: Kenichi Osada, Naoki Kitai, Takayuki Kawahara, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Publication number: 20090052238
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit has a central processing unit and a rewritable nonvolatile memory area disposed in an address space of the central processing unit. The nonvolatile memory area has a first nonvolatile memory area and a second nonvolatile memory area, which memorize information depending on the difference of threshold voltages. The first nonvolatile memory area has the maximum variation width of a threshold voltage for memorizing information set larger than that of the second nonvolatile memory area. When the maximum variation width of the threshold voltage for memorizing information is larger, since stress to a memory cell owing to a rewrite operation of memory information becomes larger, it is inferior in a point of guaranteeing the number of times of rewrite operation; however, since a read current becomes larger, a read speed of memory information can be expedited.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 27, 2008
    Publication date: February 26, 2009
    Inventors: Yutaka Shinagawa, Takeshi Kataoka, Eiichi Ishikawa, Toshihiro Tanaka, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Kazufumi Suzukawa
  • Publication number: 20080316800
    Abstract: When threshold voltages of constituent transistors are reduced in order to operate an SRAM circuit at a low voltage, there is a problem in that a leakage current of the transistors is increased and, as a result, electric power consumption when the SRAM circuit is not operated while storing data is increased. Therefore, there is provided a technique for reducing the leakage current of MOS transistors in SRAM memory cells MC by controlling a potential of a source line ssl of the driver MOS transistors in the memory cells.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 15, 2008
    Publication date: December 25, 2008
    Inventors: Masanao Yamaoka, Kenichi Osada, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Publication number: 20080303158
    Abstract: In a semiconductor integrated circuit device having plural layers of buried wirings, it is intended to prevent the occurrence of a discontinuity caused by stress migration at an interface between a plug connected at a bottom thereof to a buried wiring and the buried wiring. For example, in the case where the width of a first Cu wiring is not smaller than about 0.9 ?m and is smaller than about 1.44 ?m, and the width of a second Cu wiring and the diameter of a plug are about 0.18 ?m, there are arranged two or more plugs which connect the first wirings and the second Cu wirings electrically with each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 8, 2008
    Publication date: December 11, 2008
    Inventors: Takako Funakoshi, Eiichi Murakami, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Kan Takeuchi, Hideo Aoki, Hizuru Yamaguchi, Takayuki Oshima, Kazuyuki Tsunokuni, Kousuke Okuyama
  • Publication number: 20080279000
    Abstract: There is provided a high-density mask ROM operable at a high speed. With the mask ROM, respective source lines are disposed so as to be shared by memory cells in respective columns adjacent to each other, and bit lines are disposed so as to correspond to the respective columns of the memory cells. Further, the dummy cells are disposed for the respective columns of the memory cells. The dummy cells are each made up of a series-circuit including a first switching transistor that is turned into the conducting state in response to a signal potential on a dummy word line (DWL), and a second switching transistor 17 for coupling an adjacent source line to the bit line corresponding thereto in response to a potential of the source line in a column corresponding thereto. The memory cells each are made up of one unit of a transistor and a data storage formed by mask wiring.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 14, 2008
    Publication date: November 13, 2008
    Inventors: Kazuyoshi Okamoto, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 7428164
    Abstract: When threshold voltages of constituent transistors are reduced in order to operate an SRAM circuit at a low voltage, there is a problem in that a leakage current of the transistors is increased and, as a result, electric power consumption when the SRAM circuit is not operated while storing data is increased. Therefore, there is provided a technique for reducing the leakage current of MOS transistors in SRAM memory cells MC by controlling a potential of a source line ssl of the driver MOS transistors in the memory cells.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Masanao Yamaoka, Kenichi Osada, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 7426663
    Abstract: There are provided a plurality of bridge circuits which convert the test data information from a common test bus connected to a plurality of memories of different access data widths and address decode logics to the inherent access data widths of each memory and also convert the test address information from the common test bus to the inherent bit format of each memory to supply the result to the corresponding memory. The test address information is supplied in parallel from the common test bus to a plurality of memories to realize the parallel tests. Accordingly, the test data information can be supplied in parallel to a plurality of memories of different data widths and the address scan direction in the respective memories for the test address information can be uniformed to the particular direction depending on the inherent bit format. Thereby, the memory test efficiency by the match pattern for a plurality of on-chip memories can be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 16, 2007
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2008
    Assignees: Renesas Technology Corp., Hitachi ULSI Systems Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshio Takazawa, Toshio Yamada, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Takashi Hayasaka
  • Patent number: 7414909
    Abstract: There is provided a high-density mask ROM operable at a high speed. With the mask ROM, respective source lines are disposed so as to be shared by memory cells in respective columns adjacent to each other, and bit lines are disposed so as to correspond to the respective columns of the memory cells. Further, the dummy cells are disposed for the respective columns of the memory cells. The dummy cells are each made up of a series-circuit including a first switching transistor that is turned into the conducting state in response to a signal potential on a dummy word line (DWL), and a second switching transistor 17 for coupling an adjacent source line to the bit line corresponding thereto in response to a potential of the source line in a column corresponding thereto. The memory cells each are made up of one unit of a transistor and a data storage formed by mask wiring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 19, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Kazuyoshi Okamoto, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 7411301
    Abstract: In a semiconductor integrated circuit device having plural layers of buried wirings, it is intended to prevent the occurrence of a discontinuity caused by stress migration at an interface between a plug connected at a bottom thereof to a buried wiring and the buried wiring. For example, in the case where the width of a first Cu wiring is not smaller than about 0.9 ?m and is smaller than about 1.44 ?m, and the width of a second Cu wiring and the diameter of a plug are about 0.18 ?m, there are arranged two or more plugs which connect the first wirings and the second Cu wirings electrically with each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Takako Funakoshi, Eiichi Murakami, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Kan Takeuchi, Hideo Aoki, Hizuru Yamaguchi, Takayuki Oshima, Kazuyuki Tsunokuni, Kousuke Okuyama
  • Patent number: 7411267
    Abstract: The invention provides a semiconductor integrated circuit device with improved designing efficiency while achieving higher functions. An inner circuit is surrounded by a plurality of cells in which a first switch element for connecting a power supply voltage line or a ground voltage supply line to a power supply line of an internal circuit is disposed below power supply lines extending in a first and second directions, and the power lines are connected together.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2005
    Date of Patent: August 12, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Kentaro Yamawaki, Yoshihiko Yasu, Yasuto Igarashi, Takashi Kuraishi, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 7405971
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit includes non-volatile memory elements (PM1, PM2), each of which has a first source electrode, a first drain electrode, a floating gate electrode and a control gate electrode and is capable of having different threshold voltages, and read transistor elements (DM1, DM2), each of which has a second source electrode and a second drain electrode and is capable of having different mutual conductances according to the threshold voltage of the non-volatile memory element. The read transistor element has a switching state according to the electron injection state or the electron emission state, in other words, the writing state or the erasing state of the floating gate electrode. In a read operation, it is not necessary to cause a channel current to flow according to the threshold voltage of the non-volatile memory element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corp.
    Inventors: Shoji Shukuri, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Patent number: 7375574
    Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a differential level converter circuit that receives a first signal and outputs a second signal of greater amplitude. The differential level converter has a first MISFET pair for receiving the first signal, a second MISFET pair for enhancing the withstand voltage of the first MISFET pair, and a third MISFET pair with cross-coupled gates for latching the second signal from output. The film thickness of the gate insulating films of the second and third MISFET pairs is made thicker than that of the first MISFET pair, and the threshold voltages of the first and second MISFET pairs are made smaller than that of the third MISFET pair. This level converter circuit operates at high speed even if there is a large difference in the signal amplitude before and after level conversion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 20, 2008
    Assignee: Renesas Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Yusuke Kanno, Hiroyuki Mizuno, Kazumasa Yanagisawa
  • Publication number: 20070247918
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit has a central processing unit and a rewritable nonvolatile memory area disposed in an address space of the central processing unit. The nonvolatile memory area has a first nonvolatile memory area and a second nonvolatile memory area, which memorize information depending on the difference of threshold voltages. The first nonvolatile memory area has the maximum variation width of a threshold voltage for memorizing information set larger than that of the second nonvolatile memory area. When the maximum variation width of the threshold voltage for memorizing information is larger, since stress to a memory cell owing to a rewrite operation of memory information becomes larger, it is inferior in a point of guaranteeing the number of times of rewrite operation; however, since a read current becomes larger, a read speed of memory information can be expedited.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 30, 2004
    Publication date: October 25, 2007
    Applicant: RENESAS TECHNOLOGY CORP.
    Inventors: Yutaka Shinagawa, Takeshi Kataoka, Eiichi Ishikawa, Toshihiro Tanaka, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Kazufumi Suzukawa
  • Publication number: 20070198880
    Abstract: There are provided a plurality of bridge circuits which convert the test data information from a common test bus connected to a plurality of memories of different access data widths and address decode logics to the inherent access data widths of each memory and also convert the test address information from the common test bus to the inherent bit format of each memory to supply the result to the corresponding memory. The test address information is supplied in parallel from the common test bus to a plurality of memories to realize the parallel tests. Accordingly, the test data information can be supplied in parallel to a plurality of memories of different data widths and the address scan direction in the respective memories for the test address information can be uniformed to the particular direction depending on the inherent bit format. Thereby, the memory test efficiency by the match pattern for a plurality of on-chip memories can be improved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 16, 2007
    Publication date: August 23, 2007
    Inventors: Yoshio Takazawa, Toshio Yamada, Kazumasa Yanagisawa, Takashi Hayasaka