Samsung patents chip design with power lines running behind cells
Samsung describes a semiconductor layout where power rails run along the backside of the chip instead of the front. These rails extend through the middle of the standard cells rather than just along their edges. This arrangement allows power to be delivered directly to the interior of the logic blocks.
In the filing’s own words
Provided is a semiconductor cell architecture which includes a plurality of cells, a plurality of backside power rails, and a plurality of metal lines, wherein the backside power rails are extened in a cell-length direction, and at least one backside power rail vertically overlaps an inside area of at least one cell without vertically overlapping a lower boundary or an upper boundary of the at least one cell in a plan view.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A semiconductor device having a standard cell architecture, the device comprising: a first standard cell having a first boundary and a second boundary that each extends in a first direction; a second standard cell having a first boundary and a second boundary that each extends in the first direction, the second standard cell disposed adjacent to the first standard cell along the first direction; and a first backside power rail, a second backside power rail, a third backside power rail, and a fourth backside power rail arranged in order along a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, each of the first, second, third, and fourth backside power rails extending along the first direction, wherein the first boundary of the first standard cell overlaps the first backside power rail in a third direction perpendicular to the first direction and perpendicular to the second direction and the second boundary of the first standard cell overlaps the third backside power rail in the third direction, and wherein the first boundary of the second standard cell overlaps the second backside power rail in the third direction and the second boundary of the second standard cell overlaps the fourth backside power rail in the third direction.
Facts
- Company
- Samsung (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.)
- Official title
- SEMICONDUCTOR CELL ARCHITECTURE INCLUDING BACKSIDE POWER RAILS
- Publication number
- US20260293638A1
- Application number
- 19689141
- Filed
- May 27, 2026
- Published
- Sep 24, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
H10W 20/20 Electricity & electronicsMore from Samsung in Chips & hardware
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.