The opinion in support of the decision being entered today was not
written for publication and is not binding precedent of the Board.
BEFORE THE BOARD OF PATENT APPEALS
AND INTERFERENCES
__________
Ex parte BING CHEN, SCOTT W. GOULD
MARK KWANG-JEN HSU, PTRICK M RYAN
and ERICH C. SCHANZENBACH
__________
Appeal No. 2006-2819
Application No. 10/980,575
__________
ON BRIEF
__________
Before KRASS, JERRY SMITH and HOMERE, Administrative Patent Judges.
KRASS, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
This is a decision on appeal from the final rejection of claims 1-6 and 19-21.
The invention pertains to a method for distributing power in an integrated circuit
having voltage islands. In particular, a first power grid is generated for a voltage island
on metal levels 1 to N-1. Then, a second power grid is generated on metal levels N and
above. A bounding region of the second robust power grid is determined, and, finally,
the shortest distance connections from a set of power sources are routed to the second
power grid.
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced as follows:
1. A method for performing power routing on a voltage island within an
integrated circuit chip, said method comprising:
generating a first robust power grid for a voltage island on metal levels 1
to N-1;
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