1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of semiconductor circuit design, and more particularly to the design of a capacitor structure on a semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many integrated circuits (ICs), including mixed-signal circuits that include both digital and analog components, oftentimes require high-performance capacitors configured on the chip. Currently, a wide variety of applications for example dynamic random access memories, phase-locked loops, voltage controlled oscillators, operational amplifiers, and switched capacitor circuits—feature capacitors formed on integrated circuits. Generally, these on-chip capacitors can also be used to decouple digital and analog integrated circuits from potential noise that may be generated by the rest of the system. In many of the present systems, on-chip capacitors are designed as metal-to-metal capacitors due to the advantages such capacitors typically have over other types of capacitors, for example over capacitors formed from gate oxide. For example, in order to avoid costs associated with a metal-insulator-metal capacitor—such as additional masks and additional wafer processing costs—, it is generally desired to form a capacitor using the multiple layers of routing metal available in any given process.
Metal-to-metal capacitor structures are typically stable, predictable, and provide high-capacitance and low on-chip leakage. Metal-to-metal capacitors also provide better linearity than gate-oxide capacitors, and the quality factor of metal-to-metal capacitors is generally independent of the DC voltage of the capacitor. Such structures, however, oftentimes consume a large area of the IC. In order to reduce the required area, capacitors are many times fabricated as parallel-plate capacitor structures using two or more layers of routing metal in the IC. Accordingly, the capacitors are often designed using multiple layers of stacked, alternately connected metal, which form the opposing electrical nodes of the capacitor.
However, in small geometry processes, the fringe-capacitance between metal lines within the same metal layer can be large, and offers an alternate method for constructing metal-to-metal capacitors. It is generally possible to control the spacing between the metal lines within the same metal layer through accurate lithography. In contrast, the capacitance between the various metal layers may not be as effectively controlled, since the thickness of the field-oxide region in the corresponding metal-‘field-oxide’-metal structure can generally vary from lot to lot and across a die/wafer. Thus, using the fringe-capacitance between metal lines within the same metal layer to construct metal-to-metal capacitors offers notable advantages.
For example, in switched capacitor circuits, it has generally been desirable to design a well matched capacitor in order to obtain high accuracy. Typically, the goal has been to maximize capacitive density in order to minimize the die area occupied by the capacitor, and to minimize the ‘top-plate’-to-substrate capacitance in order to avoid electric charge being drained from critical nodes of the system through parasitic capacitance. In other words, it is oftentimes desirable to create very accurately matched, high capacitance density capacitors without paying the additional cost of parallel-plate capacitors that may be available in a given fabrication process. A minimal ‘top-plate’-to-substrate capacitance is preferable because such a capacitance can be a source of errors in switched capacitor circuits. In most current fringe-capacitance solutions, the top plate is shielded using the metal layer closest to the substrate (or bottom metal layer), hence eliminating the ‘top-plate’-to-substrate capacitance. This, however, reduces the capacitance density of the fringe-capacitance, since the bottom metal layer cannot be used when forming the desired fringe-capacitance.
Many other problems and disadvantages of the prior art will become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the present invention as described herein.
In one set of embodiments, accurate high density capacitors may be constructed on an integrated circuit by using only fringe-capacitance developed between metal lines within a given metal layer and minimizing or completely eliminating parallel-plate-capacitance. In order to maximize fringe-capacitance, the metal lines comprising the top and bottom plates of the capacitor may be interdigitated with minimum spacing, and parallel-plate-capacitance may be minimized or eliminated by stacking top plate traces on top of each other and bottom plate traces on top of each other. Therefore, a top level layer in a multi-layer process may be used for routing, and all layers below the top level layer, including the bottom layer, may be configured as interdigitated structures to maximize capacitance density. In order to minimize capacitance developed between the top plate in the bottom metal layer and the substrate, a low-impedance conductive plate constructed in polysilicon layer may be inserted between the bottom metal layer and the substrate. In one embodiment, the polysilicon plate is bootstrapped to the top plate to drive the polysilicon-to-substrate capacitance and minimize or eliminate any charge transfer from the top plate to the polysilicon plate. Bootstrapping the polysilicon plate to the top plate may also minimize and/or eliminate the bottom-plate-to-substrate capacitance, and all metal layers that are not used for routing may be used in constructing the capacitor(s).
In one embodiment, the bootstrapping of the polysilicon plate to the top plate of the capacitor may be implemented by coupling the top plate of the capacitor to the gate terminal of an NMOS device, and coupling the polysilicon plate to the source terminal of the NMOS device. As a result, the voltage at the polysilicon plate may track the voltage at the top plate, with no considerable voltage change across any parasitic capacitance that may have formed from the top plate of the capacitor to the polysilicon plate. By minimizing or eliminating current flow from the top plate of the capacitor to the polysilicon plate during circuit operation, the parasitic top-plate-to-polysilicon-plate capacitance may effectively be removed from a circuit comprising metal-to-metal capacitors. In one set of embodiments, a switched-capacitor circuit may be configured in an integrated circuit, with the capacitors of the switched-capacitor circuit configured as metal-to-metal capacitors using fringe-capacitance, with a polysilicon plate configured between the bottom metal layer and the substrate. The top plate of each capacitor of the switched-capacitor circuit may be configured to couple to a corresponding differential input terminal of the differential input stage of an amplifier of the switched-capacitor circuit. The differential input stage may comprise a pair of PMOS devices, which may have their respective source terminals coupled to the gate terminal of an NMOS device, with the source terminal of the NMOS device coupled to the polysilicon plate. The NMOS device may follow the common mode input of the amplifier, and drive the polysilicon plate without affecting the performance of the amplifier or the capacitance at the top plate of each capacitor.
Other aspects of the present invention will become apparent with reference to the drawings and detailed description of the drawings that follow.
The foregoing, as well as other objects, features, and advantages of this invention may be more completely understood by reference to the following detailed description when read together with the accompanying drawings in which:
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Note, the headings are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit or interpret the description or claims. Furthermore, note that the word “may” is used throughout this application in a permissive sense (i.e., having the potential to, being able to), not a mandatory sense (i.e., must).” The term “include”, and derivations thereof, mean “including, but not limited to”. The term “connected” means “directly or indirectly connected”, and the term “coupled” means “directly or indirectly connected”.
When using only fringe-capacitance between metal lines within a given metal layer in constructing metal-to-metal capacitors on an integrated circuit (IC), the ability for matching of unit capacitors may be superior to the matching of unit capacitors whose configuration also includes parallel-plate-capacitance. Likewise, higher capacitive densities may be achieved with capacitors configured using solely fringe-capacitance than with capacitors that also comprise parallel-plate structures. In order to maximize fringe-capacitance, the metal lines or strips used for top and bottom plates of the capacitor may be interdigitated with minimum spacing. Furthermore, by stacking top plate traces on top of each other and bottom plate traces on top of each other, the parallel—or layer to layer—capacitance may be minimized. Thus, a top level layer in a multi-layer process may be used for routing, and all layers below the top level layer, including the bottom layer, may be configured as interdigitated structures to maximize capacitance density.
Turning now to
In order to minimize the capacitance developed between top plates 202-204 and substrate 210, a low-impedance (finite resistance) conductive plate constructed in a polysilicon layer may be configured between metal layer 220 and substrate 210. This is illustrated in
One possible way to overcome these problems may be to bootstrap polysilicon plate 312 to top plates 202-204, instead of tying polysilicon plate 312 to bottom plates 206-208.
As shown in
Although the embodiments above have been described in considerable detail, other versions are possible. Numerous variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art once the above disclosure is fully appreciated. It is intended that the following claims be interpreted to embrace all such variations and modifications. Note the section headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to limit the description provided herein or the claims attached hereto.