Patent · US Expired

IC comprising functional blocks for which a mask pattern is patterned according to connection and placement data

US5576969A · kind A · utility

4Cited by
17References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 9, 1994
Grant dateNov 19, 1996
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 9, 2014

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F30/39
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

For functional blocks of an IC, each functional block comprising a plurality of macroblocks, each macroblock comprising a plurality of basic cells, a mask pattern is patterned in accordance with a layout design by using its connection data of the macroblocks in each functional block and its placement data of the basic cells in each functional block. Use of the placement data in addition to the connection data makes it possible to regularly and systematically arrange the basic cells in each functional block to achieve shortest possible connections in each fundamental block and a narrowest possible area of each functional block. In order to put a CPU in operation of patterning the mask pattern, an operating system comprises for read by the CPU first and second memories loaded with the connection and the placement data, respectively.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.