Abstract: The present invention covers a semiconductor wafer for semi-custom use in which there are no scribe lines in at least one direction. Electrically isolated cells are provided throughout the wafer. The scribe lines can thus be arbitrarily placed according to an individual customer's instructions, with the isolated cells near the scribe line being covered with metalization to form a bonding pad. Preferably, scribe lines are provided in one direction, either horizontal or vertical. This allows fixed bonding pads to be placed near these scribe lines and allows special components, such as power transistors and ESD protection systems to be placed near the fixed bonding pads. This provides better silicon efficiency than the embodiment with no fixed scribe lines by simplifying the routing. The components which need to be near the bonding pads are placed there, rather than being located randomly throughout the wafer. The customer can then specify a length of a cell which has a fixed height.

Abstract: The present invention is a bonding pad structure and method for making the same which can be connected at the metalization step to form passive or active devices in addition to forming a bonding pad. A P-doped region is formed in an epitaxial layer in the area of the bonding pad at the perimeter of a chip. This P-doped region allows the formation of a junction capacitance between it and the epitaxial layer. In addition, by adding an oxide layer over the P-doped region an oxide capacitor can be formed between the metal bonding pad and the P-doped region with the oxide as the dielectric. The oxide layer is a special sandwich of two layers, silicon dioxide and silicon nitride. The sandwiched layers protects the components beneath the bonding pad. The P-doped region can also be used as a resistance by providing metal connections to both ends. Finally, a vertical PNP transistor can be formed between the P-doped region, the epitaxial layer and a P-doped substrate.

Abstract: An improved cell structure which can be programmed to have resistors, an NPN transistor or a PNP lateral transistor in a linear arrangement with an open PNP structure. The PNP collector regions are made parallel to a PNP emitter, with lightly doped resistive P-regions attached to the ends of the emitter region to prevent the flow of current to the P-isolation boundary region. At least one base region is provided in line with a collector region and adjacent one of the resistive regions connected to the emitter.