Post #1581478
2026-03-08 10:26 UTC
I/O pad circuitry with only M1 remaining.
Three distinct blocks are there, logic circuitry, medium-drive transistors, and tow high-drive transistors for driving the pad. For standard cells, M1 seems to be solely for power delivery and local interconnect, inter-cell routing is on M2 and higher layers. Interesting to see the substrate colour changes based on the doping type; pink and green. Pink seems to have smaller FETs on average, so I'm inclined to say this is the N-type.
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@infosecdj@infosec.exchange 2026-03-08 10:31
For comparison, here is another pad type. Here, there is no small-power logic present, at all. Fewer transistors in the medium-drive section. Power FETs were turned into ESD protection diodes: no gate connection. And only a single wire running down to the rest of the chip.