Patent ID: 6175951
Filing Date: 2001-01-16
Classification: H01L,H03K

Abstract:
A method for fabricating a customer-configured integrated circuit for exclusive use by a customer, comprising:forming an integrated circuit core during a chip fabrication stage, the integrated circuit core having an application core circuit portion, a code generating circuit portion for generating a customer-specific code assigned to the integrated circuit, a proprietary code provider portion adapted to be set by the customer for providing a proprietary code, and a matching circuit portion having inputs connected to the code generating circuit portion and the proprietary code provider portion to receive the customer-specific code and the proprietary code therefrom, and an output connected to the application core circuit portion for asserting the application core circuit portion upon detection of a match between the customer-specific code and the proprietary code;providing a plurality of application bonding pads and code setting bonding pads on the integrated circuit core, the application bonding pads being connected to the application core circuit portion and the proprietary code provider portion during a pad bonding stage, the code setting bonding pads being connected to the code generating circuit portion during the pad bonding stage; andprogramming the code setting bonding pads during the pad bonding stage by selectively bonding each of the code setting bonding pads to a reference potential to enable the code generating circuit portion to generate the customer-specific code assigned to the integrated circuit.