| Patent application number | Description | Published |
|---|
| 20090059657 | CMOS STORAGE DEVICES CONFIGURABLE IN HIGH PERFORMANCE MODE OR RADIATION TOLERANT MODE - A radiation tolerant circuit, structure of the circuit and method of autonomic radiation event device protection. The circuit includes a charge storage node connected to a resistor, the resistor comprising a material having an amorphous state and a crystalline state, the amorphous state having a higher resistance than the crystalline state, the material reversibly convertible between the amorphous state and the crystalline state by application of heat; an optional resistive heating element proximate to the resistor; and means for writing data to the charge storage node and means for reading data from the charge storage node. | 03-05-2009 |
| 20090134925 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HARDENING LATCHES IN SOI CMOS DEVICES - A method of determining one or more transistors within a particular circuit to be respectively replaced with a hardened transistor includes: identifying, as not requiring hardening, one or more transistors; identifying, as candidates for hardening, each transistor in the circuit not previously identified as not requiring hardening; and employing the hardened transistor in place of a transistor identified as a candidate for hardening. The circuit is a latch and the transistor is an SOI CMOS FET. The transistor is also an SOI transistor. The series transistor includes first and second series-connected transistors having a shared source/drain region whereby a drain of the first series-connected transistor is merged with a source of the second series-connected transistor. | 05-28-2009 |
| 20090244954 | STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING STORAGE LATCH SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SINGLE EVENT UPSETS - A digital logic storage structure includes cross coupled first and second complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters formed on a semiconductor substrate, the CMOS inverters including a first storage node and a second storage node that is the logical complement of the first storage node; both of the first and second storage nodes each selectively coupled to a deep trench capacitor through a switching transistor, with the switching transistors controlled by a common capacitance switch line coupled to gate conductors thereof; wherein, in a first mode of operation, the switching transistors are rendered nonconductive so as to isolate the deep trench capacitors from the inverter storage nodes and, in a second mode of operation, the switching transistors are rendered conductive so as to couple the deep trench capacitors to their respective storage nodes, thereby providing increased resistance of the storage nodes to single event upsets (SEUs). | 10-01-2009 |
| 20090250622 | DESIGN STRUCTURE FOR ALPHA PARTICLE SENSOR IN SOI TECHNOLOGY AND STRUCTURE THEREOF - The invention relates to a design structure, and more particularly, to a design structure for an alpha particle sensor in SOI technology and a circuit thereof. The structure is a silicon-on-insulator radiation detector which includes: a charge collection node; a precharge transistor that has a source from the charge collection node, a drain at Vdd, and a gate controlled by a precharge signal; an access transistor that has a source from the charge collection node, a drain connecting to a readout node, and a gate controlled by a read-out signal; and a detector pulldown transistor having a drain from the charge collection node, a source to ground, and a grounded gate. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20100019330 | DEVICE STRUCTURES WITH A SELF-ALIGNED DAMAGE LAYER AND METHODS FOR FORMING SUCH DEVICE STRUCTURES - Device structures with a self-aligned damage layer and methods of forming such device structures. The device structure first and second doped regions of a first conductivity type defined in the semiconductor material of a substrate. A third doped region of opposite conductivity type laterally separates the first doped region from the second doped region. A gate structure is disposed on a top surface of the substrate and has a vertically stacked relationship with the third doped region. A first crystalline damage layer is defined within the semiconductor material of the substrate. The first crystalline damage layer has a first plurality of voids surrounded by the semiconductor material of the substrate. The first doped region is disposed vertically between the first crystalline damage layer and the top surface of the substrate. The first crystalline damage layer does not extend laterally into the third doped region. | 01-28-2010 |
| 20100032795 | DESIGN STRUCTURE FOR SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE HAVING RADIATION HARDENED INSULATORS AND STRUCTURE THEREOF - A design structure is provided for a semiconductor device having radiation hardened buried insulators and isolation insulators in SOI technology. The device includes a first structure and a second structure. The first structure includes: a radiation hardened BOX layer under an active device layer; radiation hardened shallow trench isolation (STI) structures between active regions of the active device layer and above the radiation hardened BOX layer; metal interconnects in one or more interlevel dielectric layers above gates structures of the active regions. The second structure is bonded to the first structure. The second structure includes: a Si based substrate; a BOX layer on the substrate; a Si layer with active regions on the BOX; oxide filled STI structures between the active regions of the Si layer; and metal interconnects in one or more interlevel dielectric layers above gates structures. At least one metal interconnect is electrically connecting the first structure to the second structure. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100035393 | METHOD FOR FABRICATING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE HAVING RADIATION HARDENED INSULATORS - A method is provided for fabricating a semiconductor device and more particularly to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device having radiation hardened buried insulators and isolation insulators in SOI technology. The method includes removing a substrate from an SOI wafer and selectively removing a buried oxide layer formed as a layer between the SOI wafer and active regions of a device. The method further comprises selectively removing isolation oxide formed between the active regions, and replacing the removed buried oxide layer and the isolation oxide with radiation hardened insulators. | 02-11-2010 |
| 20100230772 | ARRAY OF ALPHA PARTICLE SENSORS - An array of radiation sensors or detectors is integrated within a three-dimensional semiconductor IC. The sensor array is located relatively close to the device layer of a circuit (e.g., a microprocessor) to be protected from the adverse effects of the ionizing radiation particles. As such, the location where the radiation particles intersect the device layer can be calculated with coarse precision (e.g., to within 10 s of microns). | 09-16-2010 |
| 20100271057 | Method for Qcrit Measurement in Bulk CMOS Using a Switched Capacitor Circuit - A test setup for estimating the critical charge of a circuit under test (CUT) uses a charge injection circuit having a switched capacitor that is selectively connected to a node of the CUT. A voltage measurement circuit measures the voltage at a tap in the charge injection circuit before and after the charge is injected. When the injected charge causes an upset in the logical state of the CUT, the critical charge is calculated as the product of the voltage difference and the known capacitance of the capacitor. In one embodiment, (NMOS drain strike simulation) the amount of charge injected is controlled by a variable pulse width generator gating the switch of the charge injection circuit. In another embodiment (PMOS drain strike simulation) the amount of charge injected is controlled by a variable voltage supply selectively connected to the charge storage node. | 10-28-2010 |
| 20100301446 | IN-LINE STACKING OF TRANSISTORS FOR SOFT ERROR RATE HARDENING - Each one of a pair of CMOS transistors is formed in its own island and a gate terminal for each transistor is formed by a single, in-line conductor connecting both gate terminals together. This type of “in-line” connection achieves nearly a five-time improvement in the reduction of the ability of ionizing radiation particles to strike both transistors at the same time as compared to prior art “side-by-side” transistor stacking through use of a relatively smaller solid angle spanning the two transistors. This results in “hardening” of the transistors and improving their resistance to single event upsets and, thus, improving the soft error rate (SER) of the transistors. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20110102042 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR HARDENING LATCHES IN SOI CMOS DEVICES - A method of determining one or more transistors within a particular circuit to be respectively replaced with a hardened transistor includes: identifying, as not requiring hardening, one or more transistors; identifying, as candidates for hardening, each transistor in the circuit not previously identified as not requiring hardening; and employing the hardened transistor in place of a transistor identified as a candidate for hardening. The circuit is a latch and the transistor is an SOI CMOS FET. The transistor is also an SOI transistor. The series transistor includes first and second series-connected transistors having a shared source/drain region whereby a drain of the first series-connected transistor is merged with a source of the second series-connected transistor. | 05-05-2011 |
| 20110163365 | STRUCTURE AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING STORAGE LATCH SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SINGLE EVENT UPSETS - A digital logic storage structure includes cross coupled first and second complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) inverters formed on a semiconductor substrate, the CMOS inverters including a first storage node and a second storage node that is the logical complement of the first storage node; both of the first and second storage nodes each selectively coupled to a deep trench capacitor through a switching transistor, with the switching transistors controlled by a common capacitance switch line coupled to gate conductors thereof; wherein, in a first mode of operation, the switching transistors are rendered nonconductive so as to isolate the deep trench capacitors from the inverter storage nodes and, in a second mode of operation, the switching transistors are rendered conductive so as to couple the deep trench capacitors to their respective storage nodes, thereby providing increased resistance of the storage nodes to single event upsets (SEUs). | 07-07-2011 |
