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US006208907B1
(12) United States Patent ao) Patent No.: us 6,208,907 Bi
Durham et al. (45) Date of Patent: *Mar. 27,2001
(54) DOMINO TO STATIC CIRCUIT TECHNIQUE
(75) Inventors: Christopher McCall Durham;
Visweswara Rao Kodali, both of
Austin; Douglas Ele Martin, Round
Rock; Harsh Dev Sharma, Austin, all
of TX (US)
(73) Assignee: International Business Machines
Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
( * ) Notice: This patent issued on a continued prosecution application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d), and is subject to the twenty year patent term provisions of 35 U.S.C. 154(a)(2).
Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.
(21) Appl. No.: 09/016,653
(22) Filed: Jan. 30, 1998
(51) Int. CI.7 G06F 19/00; G06F 17/10;
G06F 7/60; H01L 21/82
(52) U.S. CI 700/121; 700/120; 716/19;
395/500.2; 395/500.12; 438/129
(58) Field of Search 700/121, 120;
395/500.2, 500.12; 438/129; 716/19
(56) References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
4,426,713 * 1/1984 Shimizu et al 375/354
4,753,901 * 6/1988 Ellsworth et al 438/427
5,249,133 * 9/1993 Batra 395/500.06
5,440,243 * 8/1995 Lyon 326/33
5,548,622 * 8/1996 Ma 375/354
5,633,807 * 5/1997 Fishburn et al 716/19
A method and apparatus is provided for enabling the transformation of a domino circuit to a static circuit without requiring the re-design of the chip or integrated circuit mask set. The domino circuit masks may be designed to include additional unconnected devices as appropriate which may be added or connected into the circuit after chip design release by changing only interconnection masks. Spare devices can be added and selectively used to make a domino circuit metal-mask programmable into a logically equivalent static circuit. In a first exemplary method, extra devices are added to, and/or existing devices are re-wired in the domino circuitry to make a complementary equivalent static gate. In a second exemplary methodology, the domino circuit is converted into a pseudo-NMOS circuit using devices already available in the circuit and modifying the circuit connections thereto.
14 Claims, 4 Drawing Sheets
