Patents by Inventor Muneaki Maeno

Muneaki Maeno 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: 20060199325
    Abstract: A semiconductor integrated circuit device includes cells, each of the cells including a gate electrode, which is provided on the well, and first diffusion layers of a second conductivity type which are provided in the well such that the first diffusion layers sandwich the gate electrode, the first diffusion layers functioning as sources/drains. The device further includes sub-regions which are arranged in a non-occupied area of the logic circuit structure region, each of the sub-regions including a conductive layer, which is provided on the well and has the same pattern shape as the gate electrode, and second diffusion layers of the first conductivity type, which have the same pattern shape as the first diffusion layers and are disposed spaced apart to sandwich the conductive layer, the second diffusion layers being electrically connected to the well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 28, 2006
    Publication date: September 7, 2006
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Toshikazu Sei
  • Publication number: 20060012050
    Abstract: A semiconductor device has a via-contact, a main wire having an end connected to the via-contact, and an extension extended in line with the main wire from the end of the main wire beyond the via-contact, the width of the extension being equal to or narrower than the width of the main wire. The extension prevents the end of the main wire from being rounded by an optical proximity effect, eliminates a contact defect or an open defect between the via-contact and the end of the main wire, and involves no widening of the main wire around the via-contact, so that other via-contacts may be arranged in the vicinity of the via-contact in question without violating design rules.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 21, 2004
    Publication date: January 19, 2006
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Kenji Kimura, Toshikazu Sei
  • Publication number: 20050145887
    Abstract: A basic cell placed in a semiconductor device comprises a via contact placed on a wiring grid having a pitch narrower than a pitch between a contact placed in a source region and a contact placed in a drain region of a transistor in a basic cell, and a wiring layer connected to the via contact, being used as a source terminal, a drain terminal, and a gate terminal of the transistor.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2004
    Publication date: July 7, 2005
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Toshiki Morimoto, Hiroaki Suzuki
  • Patent number: 6888254
    Abstract: First and second IP cores are formed on one chip. Each of the first and second IP cores has metal layers. In the first IP core, an uppermost layer of the metal layers is thick and is a layer on which a core power source line is formed. In the second IP core, a metal layers equal in level to the uppermost layer in the first IP core becomes an intermediate layer. In the second IP core, thin intermediate layers are formed on this intermediate layer. Thin intermediate layers are layers on which signal lines are formed and have a narrow wiring pitch. In the second IP core, a layer on which a power source line is formed is provided on the thin intermediate layers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 3, 2005
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Akira Yamaguchi, Muneaki Maeno
  • Patent number: 6849906
    Abstract: A first cell block in which a plurality of standard cells with a large cell height are arranged and a second cell block in which a plurality of standard cells with a small cell height are arranged. In the second cell block, transistors are formed whose shape and characteristics are practically the same as those of the transistors provided in the standard cells with the large cell height arranged in the first cell block.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2005
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Toshiki Morimoto
  • Patent number: 6826742
    Abstract: A semiconductor device has a via-contact, a main wire having an end connected to the via-contact, and an extension extended in line with the main wire from the end of the main wire beyond the via-contact, the width of the extension being equal to or narrower than the width of the main wire. The extension prevents the end of the main wire from being rounded by an optical proximity effect, eliminates a contact defect or an open defect between the via-contact and the end of the main wire, and involves no widening of the main wire around the via-contact, so that other via-contacts may be arranged in the vicinity of the via-contact in question without violating design rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2004
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Kenji Kimura, Toshikazu Sei
  • Patent number: 6753611
    Abstract: A semiconductor device has a via-contact, a main wire having an end connected to the via-contact, and an extension extended in line with the main wire from the end of the main wire beyond the via-contact, the width of the extension being equal to or narrower than the width of the main wire. The extension prevents the end of the main wire from being rounded by an optical proximity effect, eliminates a contact defect or an open defect between the via-contact and the end of the main wire, and involves no widening of the main wire around the via-contact, so that other via-contacts may be arranged in the vicinity of the via-contact in question without violating design rules.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2004
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Kenji Kimura, Toshikazu Sei
  • Publication number: 20040065907
    Abstract: A semiconductor device has a via-contact, a main wire having an end connected to the via-contact, and an extension extended in line with the main wire from the end of the main wire beyond the via-contact, the width of the extension being equal to or narrower than the width of the main wire. The extension prevents the end of the main wire from being rounded by an optical proximity effect, eliminates a contact defect or an open defect between the via-contact and the end of the main wire, and involves no widening of the main wire around the via-ntact, so that other via-contacts may be arranged in the vicinity of the via-contact in question without violating design rules.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2003
    Publication date: April 8, 2004
    Applicant: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Kenji Kimura, Toshikazu Sei
  • Publication number: 20040031995
    Abstract: A first cell block in which a plurality of standard cells with a large cell height are arranged and a second cell block in which a plurality of standard cells with a small cell height are arranged. In the second cell block, transistors are formed whose shape and characteristics are practically the same as those of the transistors provided in the standard cells with the large cell height arranged in the first cell block.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 12, 2003
    Publication date: February 19, 2004
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Toshiki Morimoto
  • Publication number: 20020036354
    Abstract: First and second IP cores are formed on one chip. Each of the first and second IP cores has metal layers. In the first IP core, an uppermost layer of the metal layers is thick and is a layer on which a core power source line is formed. In the second IP core, a metal layers equal in level to the uppermost layer in the first IP core becomes an intermediate layer. In the second IP core, thin intermediate layers are formed on this intermediate layer. Thin intermediate layers are layers on which signal lines are formed and have a narrow wiring pitch. In the second IP core, a layer on which a power source line is formed is provided on the thin intermediate layers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 27, 2001
    Publication date: March 28, 2002
    Inventors: Akira Yamaguchi, Muneaki Maeno
  • Patent number: 6271548
    Abstract: A master slice layout technology is provided to improve integration density of a semiconductor integrated circuit such as ASIC. In particular, a plurality of gate basic cells are arranged on a semiconductor chip and then a wiring channel grid having non-uniform pitches is defined on the gate basic cells. If a layout of metal wirings is designed along the wiring channel grid, miniaturizable patterns can be set to smaller values while maintaining line widths of predetermined metal wirings such as power supply wirings at preselected values. Since flexibility for the layout of the metal wiring layers is large, miniaturization of the patterns can be attained even if design rules for basic cell process and wiring process are different.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 1997
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2001
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Yasunobu Umemoto, Yukinori Uchino, Toshikazu Sei, Muneaki Maeno
  • Patent number: 5978301
    Abstract: The present invention relates to the improvement in the degree of on-chip integration of memory cells utilizing a gate array layout. A plurality of three-transistor DRAM cells are disposed on a semiconductor chip implementing a regular cross-point array, each DRAM cell is made up of two nMOS transistors and one pMOS transistor formed in one basic cell. The semiconductor chip disposes therein nMOS memory-cell blocks and pMOS memory-cell blocks alternately, effectively utilizing the gate array layout.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 1997
    Date of Patent: November 2, 1999
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Muneaki Maeno, Yukinori Uchino, Yutaka Tanaka