US Patent 7361961 Method and apparatus with varying gate oxide thickness

An integrated circuit having an enhanced on-off swing for pass gate transistors is provided. The integrated circuit includes a core region that includes core transistors and pass gate transistors. The core transistors have a gate oxide associated with a first thickness, the pass transistors having a gate oxide associated with a thickness that is less than the first thickness. In one embodiment, the material used for the gate oxide of the pass gate transistors has a dielectric constant that is greater than four, while the material used for the gate oxide of the core transistors has a dielectric constant that is less than or equal to four. A method for manufacturing an integrated circuit is also provided.