Chamfered corner crackstop for an integrated circuit chip

A corner crackstop comprising:

• a plurality of n metallization layers formed on a silicon layer of an integrated circuit (IC) chip above a perimeter boundary region of a corner of said IC chip, said perimeter boundary region comprising a triangle, a right angle of said triangle being disposed on a bisector of said corner of said IC chip, equilateral sides of said triangle being parallel to sides of said IC chip, and a hypotenuse of said triangle being orthogonal to said bisector;
• and
• a crackstop element disposed within each of said n metallization layers, each crackstop element being longitudinally oriented in parallel to said hypotenuse, being limited in length by said equilateral sides, and rising step-wise with each of said n metallization layers along said bisector from said right angle,
• a crackstop element of a first layer being disposed proximately to said right angle and having a smallest length limited by said equilateral sides;
• a crackstop element of a second layer being disposed more distally from said right angle than said crackstop element of said first layer, partially overlapping and contacting said crackstop element of said first layer, and having a greater length limited by said equilateral sides;
• and
• a crackstop element of an nth layer being disposed yet more distally from said right angle along said bisector than said crackstop element of an (n−1)th layer, partially overlapping and contacting said crackstop element of said (n−1)th layer, and having a greatest length limited by said equilateral sides.