System and method of manufacturing semicustom integrated circuits using reticle primitives from a library and interconnect reticles
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorThomas E. Adams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for, and method of, manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC) and an IC manufactured by the method. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a library of reticle primitives, at least two of the reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in the IC, (2) an interconnect reticle containing patterns corresponding to interconnecting conductors for electrically coupling the circuit modules and (3) lithographic equipment that employs the at least two of the recticle primitives and the interconnect reticle to create a lithograph of the circuit modules and the interconnecting conductors.
Claims33
A system for manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC), comprising:
- a library of reticle primitives, at least two of said reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in said IC;
- an interconnect reticle containing only patterns corresponding to interconnecting conductors for electrically coupling said circuit modules;
- and
- lithographic equipment that employs said at least two of said recticle primitives and said interconnect reticle to create a lithograph of said circuit modules and said interconnecting conductors.
A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC), comprising the steps of:
- selecting at least two reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in said IC from a library of reticle primitives;
- employing said at least two of said reticle primitives at a first time to create a lithograph of said circuit modules;
- and
- employing an interconnect reticle containing only patterns corresponding to interconnecting conductors for electrically coupling said circuit modules at a second time to create a lithograph of said interconnecting conductors to allow said circuit modules to cooperate to form said IC.
An integrated circuit (IC) manufactured by the process comprising the steps of:
- selecting at least two reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in said IC from a library of reticle primitives;
- employing said at least two of said reticle primitives at a first time to create a lithograph of said circuit modules;
- and
- employing an interconnect reticle containing only patterns corresponding to interconnecting conductors for electrically coupling said circuit modules at a second time to create a lithograph of said interconnecting conductors to allow said circuit modules to cooperate to form said IC.
An integrated circuit (IC) manufactured by the process comprising the steps of:
- (a) employing at least one reticle containing patterns corresponding to a bond pad frame to create a lithograph of said bond pad frame on a wafer;
- (b) selecting at least two reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in said IC from a library of reticle primitives, said at least two of said reticle primitives being free of patterns corresponding to bond pads and protected drive transistors for said circuit modules;
- (c) employing said at least two of said reticle primitives at a first time to create a lithograph of said circuit modules on said wafer;
- (d) employing an interconnect reticle containing only patterns corresponding to interconnecting conductors for electrically coupling said circuit modules at a second time to create a lithograph of said interconnecting conductors on said wafer to allow said circuit modules to cooperate to form said IC;
- and
- (e) repeating said steps (c) and (d) to create multiple of said ICs on said wafer.
A process of manufacturing an integrated circuit comprising:
- selecting at least two reticle primitives containing patterns corresponding to circuit modules to be contained in the integrated circuit;
- employing one of the at least two reticle primitives at a first time during the process to manufacture the integrated circuit;
- employing another one of the at least two reticle primitives at a second time during the process to manufacture the integrated circuit;
- providing an interconnect reticle containing patterns corresponding to interconnect structures for interconnecting the circuit modules;
- and
- employing the interconnect reticle, at a third time different from the first time and the second time, during the process to manufacture the integrated circuit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.