Personalizable semiconductor chips for analog and analog/digital circuits
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsRobert L. Hedman, Gordon G. Koehler, Karl L. Ladin, John T. Trnka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer converts a description of an analog circuit to a physical representation in terms of devices on a personalizable chip. The devices are placed and wired automatically for fabrication of the chip. Descriptions of resistors in the circuit are expanded by wiring multiple contacts of one or more actual resistor devices on the chip. The chip uses multiple rows of devices arranged in columns; each row contains multiple transistor and resistor devices.
Claims6
A personalizable semiconductor chip for implementing analog electrical circuits, said analog electrical circuits being designed to produce at least one analog output from at least one analog input, said personalizable semiconductor chip comprising:
- a pair of power buses extending in a first dimension for carrying different supply voltages and thereby establishing a direction of unidirectional current flow therebetween in a second dimension substantially perpendicular to said first dimension,
- each of said buses having a plurality of contacts therealong;
- a column of circuit bricks for containing a plurality of personalized analog circuits, said column being disposed along said first dimension of said chip and lying entirely between the buses of said pair,
- each of said bricks being substantially longer in said second dimension than in said first dimension, and having multiple transistor devices and multiple resistor devices,
- each of said transistor devices and at least one of said resistor devices having at least three contacts, all of said device contacts of each of said bricks being disposed in a single straight line along said second dimension,
- said bricks being disposed contiguously side by side along said first dimension on said chip such that one of said contacts of each of said power buses lie along said single straight line of each of said bricks.
An analog circuit on a semiconductor chip, said analog circuit being designed to produce at least one analog output from at least one analog input, said analog circuit comprising:
- a pair of power buses extending in a first dimension for carrying different supply voltages and thereby establishing a direction of unidirectional current flow therebetween in a second dimension substantially perpendicular to said first dimension, each of said buses having a plurality of contacts therealong;
- a plurality of substantially identical circuit bricks arranged in a column disposed along said first dimension and lying between the buses of said pair;
- wherein each of said circuit bricks comprises a plurality of transistor devices and a plurality of resistor devices, each of said transistor and resistor devices having a plurality of contacts disposed substantially in a single straight line along said second dimension;
- a plurality of electrical connections connecting individual ones of said contacts to other ones of said contacts to form said analog circuit;
- wherein the contacts of a first circuit brick are connected by a first set of said electrical connections, and the contacts of a second circuit brick are connected by a second set of said electrical connections, said first and second set of electrical connections being substantially different, whereby the analog performance characteristics of said first and second bricks are substantially different.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.