Ionizing radiation blocking in ic chip to reduce soft errors
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsMukta G. Farooq, Ian D. Melville, Kevin S. Petrarca, Kenneth P. Rodbell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of blocking ionizing radiation to reduce soft errors and resulting IC chips are disclosed. One embodiment includes forming a front end of line (FEOL) for an integrated circuit (IC) chip; and forming at least one back end of line (BEOL) dielectric layer including ionizing radiation blocking material therein. Another embodiment includes forming a front end of line (FEOL) for an integrated circuit (IC) chip; and forming an ionizing radiation blocking layer positioned in a back end of line (BEOL) of the IC chip. The ionizing radiation blocking material or layer absorbs ionizing radiation and reduces soft errors within the IC chip.
Claims18
An integrated circuit (IC) chip comprising:
- a first layer of the integrated circuit chip;
- a first metallization layer over the first layer;
- and
- at least one dielectric layer over the first metallization layer, the at least one dielectric layer including ionizing radiation blocking material therein, wherein the ionizing radiation blocking material is configured to block or absorb ionizing radiation.
An integrated circuit (IC) chip comprising:
- a first metallization layer;
- and
- a dielectric layer over the first metallization layer, the dielectric layer including an ionizing radiation blocking layer configured to block or absorb ionizing radiation.
An integrated circuit (IC) chip comprising:
- a first back end of the line (BEOL) dielectric layer;
- a conductor located within the BEOL dielectric layer;
- a second BEOL dielectric layer over the first BEOL dielectric layer;
- and
- an ionizing radiation blocking material layer over the second BEOL, wherein the ionizing radiation blocking material layer is configured to block or absorb ionizing radiation,
- wherein the ionizing radiation blocking material layer is distanced from the conductor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.