Cell of transmission gate free circuit and integrated circuit and integrated circuit layout including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10270430-B2
Application number	US-201715841950-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 14, 2017
Priority date	Dec 28, 2016
Publication date	Apr 23, 2019
Grant date	Apr 23, 2019

Abstract

A semiconductor standard cell of a flip-flop circuit includes semiconductor fins extending substantially parallel to each other along a first direction, electrically conductive wirings disposed on a first level and extending substantially parallel to each other along the first direction, and gate electrode layers extending substantially parallel to a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction and formed on a second level different from the first level. The flip-flop circuit includes transistors made of the semiconductor fins and the gate electrode layers, receives a data input signal, stores the data input signal, and outputs a data output signal indicative of the stored data in response to a clock signal, the clock signal is the only clock signal received by the semiconductor standard cell, and the data input signal, the clock signal, and the data output signal are transmitted among the transistors through at least the electrically conductive wirings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A semiconductor standard cell of a flip-flop circuit, the semiconductor standard cell comprising:
a plurality of semiconductor fins extending substantially parallel to each other along a first direction;
a plurality of electrically conductive wirings disposed on a first level and extending substantially parallel to each other along the first direction; and
a plurality of gate electrode layers extending substantially parallel to a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction and formed on a second level different from the first level,
wherein the semiconductor standard cell has a predetermined length in the first direction and a predetermined width in the second direction,
the flip-flop circuit includes a plurality of transistors made of the plurality of semiconductor fins and the plurality of gate electrode layers, receives a data input signal, stores the data input signal, and outputs a data output signal indicative of the stored data in response to an input clock signal,
the input clock signal is only either a clock signal or another clock signal complementary to the clock signal received by the semiconductor standard cell in an area defined by the predetermined length and the predetermined width, and
the data input signal, the input clock signal, and the data output signal are transmitted among the plurality of transistors through at least the plurality of electrically conductive wirings.

2. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrically conductive wirings include a first electrically conductive wiring transmitting the input clock signal.

3. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 2 , wherein the first electrically conductive wiring is the only electrically conductive wiring on the first level that transmits the input clock signal.

4. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 2 , wherein:
the first electrically conductive wiring includes a first section transmitting the input clock signal and a second section transmitting a signal different from the input clock signal, and
the first and second sections are spaced-apart from each other and aligned with each other along the first direction.

5. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of gate electrode layers include a first gate electrode layer electrically connected to the first electrically conductive wiring and extending across one or more of the plurality of semiconductor fins.

6. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 5 , wherein:
the first gate electrode layer continuously extends to cross two or more of the plurality of semiconductor fins, and
one or more N-type transistors and one or more P-type transistors are made of the two or more of the plurality of semiconductor fins.

7. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 5 , wherein the first gate electrode layer continuously extends to cross each of the plurality of semiconductor fins.

8. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrically conductive wirings include first and second power wirings transmitting a first voltage potential, and a third power wiring disposed between the first and second power wirings and transmitting a second voltage potential different from the first voltage potential.

9. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 8 , wherein a number of electrically conductive wirings of the plurality of electrically conductive wirings between the first and third power wirings is three or four, and a number of electrically conductive wirings of the plurality of electrically conductive wirings between the second and third power wirings is three or four.

10. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 8 , wherein a number of semiconductor fins of the plurality of semiconductor fins between the first and third power wirings is two or three, and a number of semiconductor fins of the plurality of semiconductor fins between the second and third power wirings is two or three.

11. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 8 , wherein electrically conductive wirings of the plurality of electrically conductive wirings other than the first to third power wirings have a constant pitch.

12. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 8 , wherein a width of the first to third power wirings is greater than a width of the electrically conductive wirings other than the first to third power wirings.

13. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of upper electrically conductive wirings disposed on a second level above the first level, with reference to a substrate from which the flip-flop circuit is made,
wherein the plurality of upper electrically conductive wirings extend substantially parallel to the second direction, and transmit the data input signal, the input clock signal, and the data output signal with the plurality of electrically conductive wirings.

14. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 1 , wherein:
the plurality of gate electrode layers include a first dummy gate electrode layer and a second dummy gate electrode layer,
gate electrode layers of the plurality of gate electrode layers other than the first and second dummy gate electrode layers are disposed between the first and second dummy gate electrode layer, and
each of the first dummy gate electrode layer and the second dummy gate electrode layer extends continuously to cross the plurality of semiconductor fins.

15. A semiconductor standard cell of a flip-flop circuit, the semiconductor standard cell comprising:
a plurality of semiconductor fins extending substantially parallel to each other along a first direction;
a plurality of electrically conductive wirings disposed on a first level and extending substantially parallel to each other along the first direction; and
a plurality of gate electrode layers extending substantially parallel to a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction and formed on a second level different from the first level,
wherein the semiconductor standard cell has a predetermined length in the first direction and a predetermined width in the second direction,
the flip-flop circuit includes a plurality of transistors implementing at least an AND-OR-Invert (AOI) logic or an OR-AND-Invert (OAI) logic receiving an input data signal and an input clock signal, a storage block storing the input data signal, and an output block outputting a data output signal indicative of the stored data,
the input clock signal is only either a clock signal or another clock signal complementary to the clock signal received by the semiconductor standard cell in an area defined by the predetermined length and the predetermined width, and
the data input signal, the input clock signal, and the data output signal are transmitted among the plurality of transistors at least through the plurality of electrically conductive wirings.

16. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of electrically conductive wirings include a first electrically conductive wiring transmitting the input clock signal.

17. The semiconductor standard cell of claim 16 , wherein the first electrically conductive wiring is the only electrically conductive wiring on the first level that transmits the input clock signal.

18. An integrated circuit, comprising:
a first semiconductor standard cell of a flip-flop circuit and a second semiconductor standard cell immediately adjacent to each other in a first direction,
wherein the first semiconductor standard cell comprising:
a plurality of semic

Assignees

• Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg Co Ltd

Inventors

• Guo Ta-Pen
• Liu Chi-Lin
• Hsieh Shang-Chih
• Kao Jerry Chang-Jui
• Tien Li-Chun
• Lu Lee-Chung

Classifications

• H03K3/35625

  using complementary field-effect transistors · CPC title

• H03K3/356121

  with synchronous operation (H03K3/35613, H03K3/356147 take precedence) · CPC title

• H03K3/02332 Primary

  of the primary-secondary type · CPC title

• H03K3/01

  Details · CPC title

• H03K23/58

  Gating or clocking signals not applied to all stages, i.e. asynchronous counters (H03K23/74 - H03K23/84 take precedence) · CPC title