Method of overlapping interconnect signal lines for reducing capacitive coupling effects
AssigneeSTMicroelectronics S.r.l.
InventorDavid V. Carlson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Described herein are various principles for designing, manufacturing, and operating integrated circuits having functional components and one or more metal interconnect layers, where the dimensions of signal lines of the metal interconnect layers are larger than dimensions of the functional components. In some embodiments, a signal line may have a width greater than a width of a terminal of a functional component to which the signal line is connected. In some embodiments, two functional components formed in a same functional layer of the integrated circuit may be connected to metal signal lines in different metal interconnect layers. Further, the metal signal lines of the different metal interconnect layers may overlap some distance.
Claims19
A method for reading information signals via a first metal signal line and a second metal signal line of an integrated circuit, the first and second metal signal lines being adjacent, at least partially overlapping, and separated vertically by a distance, the method comprising:
- reading a first information signal via the first metal signal line;
- waiting a recovery time to allow the second metal signal line to recover from an effect of capacitive coupling with the first metal signal line;
- and
- reading a second information signal via the second metal signal line after the recovery time expires.
A method, comprising:
- reading a first information signal via a first metal signal line of an integrated circuit;
- reading a second information signal via a second metal signal line of the integrated circuit;
- wherein the first and second metal signal lines are adjacent, at least partially overlapping, and separated vertically by a distance;
- and
- wherein reading the second information signal comprises delaying by a recovery time sufficient to allow the second metal signal line to recover from an effect of capacitive coupling with the first metal signal line before reading the second information signal.
A method, comprising:
- selecting one signal line of a plurality of signal lines, wherein the plurality of signal lines are coupled to a common bus and are adjacent to each other, with adjacent ones of the signal lines at least partially overlapping and separated vertically by a distance;
- reading an information signal from the selected one signal line;
- delaying for a recovery time period sufficient to allow signal lines adjacent to the selected one signal line to recover from an effect of capacitive coupling with the selected one signal line;
- following expiration of the recovery time period, selecting one of the signal lines adjacent to the one signal line;
- and
- reading an information signal from the selected adjacent signal line.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.