Same chips/different manufacturer? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: cubemike99
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 04:30:52 pm
content: How can both TI and STMicroelectronics sell 5V regulators, for example, without it being illegal or them suing the pants off each other? In other words, how does IC patent law work?

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 05:43:24 pm
content: licences or clean room designs.ic's don't necessarily contain patented technology...

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 06:44:48 pm
content: The US introduced their Semiconductor Chip Protection Act in 1984. Stuff done before was not protected others than by patents. AFAIK that act protects IC mask layouts for up to 10 years, meaning stuff older than 2003 is currently not protected by it, but maybe by other laws. And AFAIK the act excludes from protection layouts that are common or well known, whatever that means.If you need to have reliable information contact a lawyer, don't trust my words.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 08:19:09 pm
content: It can be really advantageous to the manufactures having a second source to their chips. As a design engineer working on a long lifetime project sometimes you aren't even allowed to design in a part unless there is at least one other source, and there is often a general rule to keep single sourced parts to the absolute minimum (sorry Maxim).Make sure you qualify each manufactures part though. No guarantees they will have exactly the same performance, especially if they are not licensed.

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 09:16:06 pm
content: masks are indeed protected. can;t clone those. But you can design a functionally identical circuit , with same pinout in same package with same name. ( names are not trademarkable. see intel 485 -> pentium. i586 or 80586 is not trademarkable. pentium is ...so i can make a vh741 without problem. provided i do my own mask layout and my own schematic design. if it meets all the electrical and functional specs of the original 741 there is nothing barring me from calling it a vh-741.note on the 'clean room' design.. this often confused.. we are not talking about a dirt-free room here ( although yuo need one of those to make the chip )a clean room design means : we take a physical room. empty it part from a table , a desk and a workstation with the cad software needed for the design.no other documents apart from the electrical spec and functional description the 'to be cloned design' is allowed.you cant have any cross cuts or actual part , schematics or other documentation in that 'clean room'the engineer is tasked to build a chip that adheres to that datasheet.that is a clean room design. it means they can't put anything on you in terms of stealing schematics , layouts or other stuff. you engineered a functionally and electrical identical part from publicly available documentation : datasheets, user manuals etc.

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 09:25:33 pm
content: You don't have to do a clean room design in the US. The Semiconductor Chip Protection Act has a provision for reverse engineeringQuote

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 10, 2013, 09:33:47 pm
content: Quote from: Bored@Work on April 10, 2013, 09:25:33 pmreverse engineering yes, but you can't clone a mask and start production with that cloned mask.... you need to make your own layout.

author: cubemike99
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: April 17, 2013, 10:14:27 pm
content: Thanks for the info. Exactly what I was looking for.