Methods and apparatus for increasing metal density in an integra

Details Methods and apparatus for increasing metal density in an integra Methods and apparatus for increasing metal density in an integra

1998-06-02

2000-08-01

Ballato, Josie

Electricity: measuring and testing

Impedance, admittance or other quantities representative of...

Lumped type parameters

257659, G01R 3126

Patent

active

060971959

ABSTRACT:
A shield region of metallization is formed in a first metallization layer of an integrated circuit so as to increase the metal density of the first metallization layer to at least a minimum density required for proper fabrication. The shield region is coupled via an amplifier or other suitable coupling mechanism to at least a portion of another metallization layer overlying or underlying the first metallization layer in the integrated circuit, such that the shield region acts to reduce parasitic capacitance associated with a circuit node in the other metallization layer. In an illustrative fingerprint sensor cell implementation, the shield region is in the form of a shield plate underlying a sensor plate in the sensor cell and serves to increase the metal density of a lower-level metallization layer in the cell. The sensor plate is coupled to the shield plate via a unity-gain amplifier, so as to reduce the parasitic capacitance seen by the sensor plate, thereby improving the ability of the sensor cell to detect fingerprint characteristics. The invention can provide similar advantages in numerous other integrated circuit applications.

REFERENCES:
patent: 4628144 (1986-12-01), Burger
patent: 5239270 (1993-08-01), Desbiens
patent: 5325442 (1994-06-01), Knapp
patent: 5539292 (1996-07-01), Vranish
patent: 5594279 (1997-01-01), Itou et al.
patent: 5608242 (1997-03-01), Kamasz et al.

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