152results about How to "Improve area efficiency" patented technology

A silicon-on-insulator (SOI) RF switch adapted for improved power handling capability using a reduced number of transistors is described. In one embodiment, an RF switch includes pairs of switching and shunting stacked transistor groupings to selectively couple RF signals between a plurality of input / output nodes and a common RF node. The switching and shunting stacked transistor groupings comprise one or more MOSFET transistors connected together in a “stacked” or serial configuration. In one embodiment, the transistor groupings are “symmetrically” stacked in the RF switch (i.e., the transistor groupings all comprise an identical number of transistors). In another embodiment, the transistor groupings are “asymmetrically” stacked in the RF switch (i.e., at least one transistor grouping comprises a number of transistors that is unequal to the number of transistors comprising at least one other transistor grouping). The stacked configuration of the transistor groupings enable the RF switch to withstand RF signals of varying and increased power levels. The asymmetrically stacked transistor grouping RF switch facilitates area-efficient implementation of the RF switch in an integrated circuit. Maximum input and output signal power levels can be withstood using a reduced number of stacked transistors.

This invention discloses a semiconductor power device that includes a plurality of power transistor cells surrounded by a trench opened in a semiconductor substrate. At least one active cell further includes a trenched source contact opened between the trenches wherein the trenched source contact opened through a source region into a body region for electrically connecting the source region to a source metal disposed on top of an insulation layer wherein a trench bottom surface of the trenched source contact further covered with a conductive material to function as an integrated Schottky barrier diode in said active cell. A shielding structure is disposed at the bottom and insulated from the trenched gate to provide shielding effect for both the trenched gate and the Schottky diode.

It is intended to provide a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor, comprising: a semiconductor pillar; one of a drain region and a source region formed in contact with a lower part of the semiconductor pillar; a first gate formed around a sidewall of the semiconductor pillar through a first dielectric film therebetween; and an epitaxial semiconductor layer formed on a top surface of the semiconductor pillar, wherein the other of the source region and the drain region is formed so as to be at least partially in the epitaxial semiconductor layer, and wherein: the other of the source region and the drain region has a top surface having an area greater than that of the top surface of the semiconductor pillar.

The present invention provides a photovoltaic module which prevents enlargement of the dimensions of a photovoltaic submodule by reducing ineffective parts which do not contribute to power generation. The photovoltaic module comprises a photovoltaic submodule including a plurality of solar cells interposed between two light-transmitting substrates through the intermediary of an encapsulant, and a connecting lead extending from an edge between the two light-transmitting substrates for outputting generated electric current, a terminal box 30 attached near to the edge of the photovoltaic submodule housing a connecting part between the connecting lead and a cable for outputting generated electric current to the outside, and an outer frame set around the outer circumference of the photovoltaic submodule. An opening 28 through which the connecting lead and the terminal box are inserted is provided to the outer frame at a position which receives at least the terminal box.

An algorithmic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes a sample-and-hold circuit and an ADC processing unit operating in parallel and sharing a single operational amplifier. The ADC processing unit includes an MDAC with a switched capacitor topology and a sub-ADC. The ADC processing unit is clocked by an internal clock that is N times faster than the sample-and-hold clock. Each cycle is further sub-divided into two phases. During one phase the capacitors are coupled to a residue or sampled voltage provided by the MDAC, and during another phase the capacitor are coupled to a reference voltage determined by the switch control signals generated by the sub-ADC. A set of data bits is generated by the ADC processing unit during each ADC clock cycle. The N sets of data bits are added to generate the digital output stream.

Methods, circuits, architectures, and systems for error detection in transmitted data. The method generally includes the steps of (i) partitioning the unit of digital data into one or more full data lines and a remainder, wherein each of the full data lines comprises a predetermined number of data blocks, each of the data blocks has a first fixed length, the predetermined number is an integer of at least 2, and the remainder has a length less than the predetermined number times the first fixed length; (ii) if the remainder contains at least one data bit, adding to the remainder a padding vector having a length sufficient to generate a padded data line having the predetermined number of data blocks; and (iii) performing error checking calculations on the full data lines and the padded data line. The present invention reduces the chip area and power consumption, while improving system performance.

A method of producing a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor, includes the steps of forming, on a top surface of at least one of semiconductor pillars, an epitaxial layer having a top surface larger in area than the top surface of the at least one of the semiconductor pillars and forming a source region or a drain region so as to be at least partially in the epitaxial layer.

Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) decoder circuitry in which memory resources are realized as single-port memory. The decoder circuitry includes a single port memory for storing log-likelihood ratio (LLR) estimates of input node data states for individual rows of a parity check matrix. The decoder circuitry also includes multiple instances of single-port column sum memories, which store updated LLR estimates for each input node. In each case, the memory resources include logic circuitry that executes at least one write cycle and one read cycle to the memory within each decoder cycle. Because the decoder cycle time is much longer than the necessary memory cycle time, particularly in LDPC decoding, data can be written to and read from single-port memory resources in ample time for the decoding operation.

Of a plurality of standard cells in which an N-well region and a P-well region are vertically formed, some standard cells have a border line between the N-well region and the P-well region which is set to be a low height (first height), and other standard cells have a border line between the N-well region and the P-well region which is set to be a high height (second height), depending on the size of a transistor formed in the standard cell. Although these standard cells have different border lines, a standard cell for linking the border lines is provided. In such a standard cell, an empty space is created by forming a small-size transistor therein, and the empty space is utilized so that, for example, a left end of the border line is set to have the first height and a right end of the border line is set to have the second height, whereby the border line is converted so as to link the heights therein.

Methods, circuits, architectures, and systems for error detection in transmitted data. The method generally includes the steps of (a) performing an error checking calculation on the transmitted data and appended error checking code; (b) determining the calculated error checking code state; and (c) if it has a predetermined state, indicating that there is no error in the transmitted data. The circuitry generally comprises (1) an error checking code calculation circuit configured to calculate error checking code on the transmitted data and the appended error checking code; (2) a vector selector configured to select one of a plurality of error checking vectors; and (3) a logic circuit configured to determine the calculated error checking code state and, if it has a predetermined state, indicate that there is no error in the transmitted data. The software generally includes a set of instructions configured to implement or carry out the present method. The architectures and / or systems generally include those that embody one or more of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. In the present invention, an error checking calculation is performed on error checking code transmitted with the data. If the transmitted data and error checking code are error-free, the error checking calculation gives a result having a known and / or predetermined state. This technique enables one to confirm or determine that the data transmission was error-free without use of or need for a wide, complicated comparator, thereby reducing the chip area dedicated to error detection, increasing the utilization efficiency of the circuitry on the chip, and reducing power consumption.

A multithread processor including: an execution unit including a physical processor; and a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) which converts, to a physical address, a logical address output from the execution unit, and logical processors are implemented on the physical processor, a first logical processor that is a part of the logical processors constitutes a first subsystem having a first virtual space, a second logical processor that is a part of the logical processors and different from the first logical processor constitutes a second subsystem having a second virtual space, each of the first and the second subsystems has processes to be assigned to the logical processors, and the logical address includes: a first TLB access virtual identifier for identifying one of the first and the second subsystems; and a process identifier for identifying a corresponding one of the processes in each of the first and the second subsystems.

The voltage of a detection resistor connected to the drain of a low-side switching device is normally a negative voltage, but a positive voltage appears when a countercurrent occurs in an abnormal state. A current comparator monitors the voltage of the detection resistor, transmits high output to an AND circuit whole the voltage of the detection resistor is a negative voltage to maintain the output voltage of the current comparator in a low state when an output signal of a driver can be transmitted to the low-side switching device, and allows the output voltage of the current comparator in a low state when the voltage of the detection resistor becomes a positive voltage, thereby forcibly turning off the low-side switching device.

Of a plurality of standard cells in which an N-well region and a P-well region are vertically formed, some standard cells have a border line between the N-well region and the P-well region which is set to be a low height (first height), and other standard cells have a border line between the N-well region and the P-well region which is set to be a high height (second height), depending on the size of a transistor formed in the standard cell. Although these standard cells have different border lines, a standard cell for linking the border lines is provided. In such a standard cell, an empty space is created by forming a small-size transistor therein, and the empty space is utilized so that, for example, a left end of the border line is set to have the first height and a right end of the border line is set to have the second height, whereby the border line is converted so as to link the heights therein.

The invention discloses an edge terminal structure of a high-voltage power semiconductor device. The edge terminal structure comprises a plurality of field limiting rings which wind the power semiconductor device and have a conduction type opposite to that of a substrate; one or two side of each field limiting ring is provided with a doped region which has a conduction type the same as that of the field limiting ring and the doping concentration smaller than that of the field limiting ring; the field limiting rings are coated with field plates; and the field limiting rings and the field plates are separated by silicon dioxide layers. The material of the field plate can be selected from copper, aluminum, polysilicon, oxygen-doped polysilicon and the like. The doped regions with lower concentration are added around the conventional field limiting rings, so the intensity of electric field lines of an edge cellular can be effectively reduced, the electric field strength borne by the edge cellular is reduced, the breakdown voltage is improved, the area efficiency of the edge terminal structure is effectively improved, the chip area is saved, and the chip cost is reduced.

Disclosed is a configurable logic circuit that includes at least 6 inputs and at least two outputs. The configurable logic element can carry out only a subset of all 6-input logic functions and, thus, requires a substantially smaller silicon area than a 6-LUT that can perform all 6-input logic functions. Also, the configurable logic circuit can be configured such that a first subset of the inputs drive one of the outputs and a second subset of the inputs drive another output.

Described herein is a fixed-point piece-wise linear (FP PWL) approximation technique for computations of nonlinear functions. The technique results in circuit designs having relatively few and simple arithmetic operations, short arithmetic operands and small-sized look-up tables and the circuits resultant there from can be efficiently pipelined to run at multi-GSamples / s throughputs. In one exemplary embodiment, the FP PWL approximation technique was used in the design of an energy-efficient high-throughput and high-precision signal component separator (SCS) for use with in an asymmetric-multilevel-outphasing (AMO) power amplifier. The FP PWL approximation technique is appropriate for use in any application requiring high-throughput, area and power constrained hardware implementations of nonlinear functions.

Disclosed is a configurable logic circuit that includes at least 6 inputs and at least two outputs. The configurable logic element can carry out only a subset of all 6-input logic functions and, thus, requires a substantially smaller silicon area than a 6-LUT that can perform all 6-input logic functions. Also, the configurable logic circuit can be configured such that a first subset of the inputs drive one of the outputs and a second subset of the inputs drive another output.

The present invention provides a LCOS display. The display comprises a first PCB, an interface module, a first silicon chip, and a flat cable. The interface module is disposed on the first PCB and used to receive an audio and video signal. The first silicon chip comprises a display area, a processing area, and a metal layer. The display area comprises a pixel array in a LCOS panel formed on the first silicon chip. The processing area comprises a processing unit formed on the first silicon chip. The metal layer is formed on the first silicon chip for electrically connecting the display area with the processing area. The flat cable is used to electrically connect the interface module with the processing unit.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of producing a Group III nitride semiconductor device having a chip form which is pentagonal or more highly polygonal maintaining good area efficiency and at a low cost. The inventive method of producing a Group III nitride semiconductor device having a chip shape which is a pentagonal or more highly polygonal shape comprises a first step of epitaxially growing a Group III nitride semiconductor on a substrate to form a semiconductor wafer; a second step of irradiating said semiconductor wafer with a laser beam to form separation grooves; a third step of grinding and / or polishing the main surface side differently from the epitaxially grown main surface of the substrate; and a fourth step of division into individual chips by applying stress to said separation grooves.

The present invention describes systems and method for driving wordlines of memory devices. Some embodiments include a selection signal driver to generate a selection signal responsive to a first wordline signal, a main wordline driver to generate a main wordline signal responsive to a second wordline signal, the selection signal corresponding to one of the power supply voltage and the ground voltage and the main wordline signal corresponding to the other one of the power supply voltage and the ground voltage, and a sub-wordline driver to generate a sub-wordline signal responsive to the main wordline signal, the sub-wordline signal having a voltage level corresponding to the selection signal or a low voltage.

The invention discloses an edge terminal structure of a high-voltage power semiconductor device. The edge terminal structure comprises a plurality of field limiting rings which surround the power semiconductor device and have the conduction type opposite to that of a substrate, wherein doping regions which have the same conduction type as the field limiting rings and lower doping density than the field limiting rings are arranged around the field limiting rings; the field limiting rings are wrapped by the doping regions and coated by field plates; and the field limiting rings are separated from the field plates by using silicon dioxide layers. The field plates can be made of copper, aluminum, polycrystalline silicon, oxygen-doped polycrystalline silicon and the like. Because the doping regions with lower density are arranged around the conventional field limiting rings, the density of edge cell electric field lines can be effectively reduced, the electric field strength born by an edge cell is reduced, the breakdown voltage is increased, the area efficiency of the edge terminal structure is effectively improved, the chip area is saved and the chip cost is reduced.

A semiconductor device includes: a plurality of external terminals; a plurality of semiconductor substrates that are layered; a through electrode penetrating through at least one of the semiconductor substrates and electrically connected with any of the external terminals; and a plurality of electrostatic discharge protection circuits provided on any one of the semiconductor substrates. In the device, the through electrode is electrically connected with the plurality of electrostatic discharge protection circuits.