Integrated circuit including NCEM-enabled, snake-configured fill cells, with NCEM pads formed from at least three conductive stripes positioned between adjacent gates

1. An integrated circuit (IC) that includes a multiplicity of standard cell library compatible, non-contact electrical measurement (NCEM)-enabled fill cells, each of said NCEM-enabled fills cells including:

at least first and second power rails, each formed in a conductive layer, and each extending longitudinally in a first direction, the power rails configured for abutted instantiation with logic cells in the standard cell library;

a plurality of gate (GATE) stripes, each extending longitudinally, in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, from at least the first power rail to at least the second power rail, each of the GATE stripes having a uniform transverse thickness and a uniform center-to-center spacing (CPP) between adjacent GATE stripes;

an NCEM pad, comprised of:

at least three first-direction stripes, each formed in a conductive layer, each extending longitudinally in the first direction, and each positioned in a transverse direction between the first and second power rails;

at least three second-direction stripes, each formed in a conductive layer, each extending longitudinally in the second direction, each positioned longitudinally between the first and second power rails, and each positioned transversely between adjacent GATE stripes, such that the center-to-center spacing between adjacent second-direction stripes is CPP;

wherein each of the first-direction stripes overlaps, and is connected to, each of the second-direction stripes;

at least one snake test area, defined by a plurality of elongated, patterned features, serially connected in a snake configuration, the snake test area characterized by a width dimension and a length dimension; and,

pad/ground wiring that (i) connects one end of the snake configuration to the NCEM pad and (ii) connects another end of the snake configuration to at least one power rail.

2. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells are configured as snake-open-configured fill cells.

3. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells are configured as snake-resistance-configured fill cells.

4. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM pad includes four first-direction stripes, each formed in a conductive layer, each extending longitudinally in the first direction, and each positioned in the transverse direction between the first and second power rails.

5. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first-direction stripes are single patterned.

6. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first-direction stripes are double patterned.

7. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first-direction stripes are triple patterned.

8. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second-direction stripes are single patterned.

9. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second-direction stripes are double patterned.

10. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the second-direction stripes are triple patterned.

11. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells include at least two snake test areas, wired in series.

12. An IC, as defined in claim 11 , wherein each of the series-wired snake test areas is identically configured.

13. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , in the form of a semiconductor wafer.

14. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , in the form of a semiconductor die.

15. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , in the form of a packaged semiconductor chip.

16. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells form a design of experiments (DOE) in which some of the NCEM-enabled fill cells differ in terms of the width dimension of their respective snake test area(s).

17. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells form a design of experiments (DOE) in which some of the NCEM-enabled fill cells differ in terms of the length dimension of their respective snake test area(s).

18. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , wherein the NCEM-enabled fill cells form a design of experiments (DOE) in which some of the NCEM-enabled fill cells differ in terms of other patterning within expanded test area(s) that surround the snake test area(s).

19. An IC, as defined in claim 1 , further comprising additional, differently configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells, said differently configured fill cells selected from a list that consists of:

tip-to-tip-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

tip-to-tip-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

tip-to-side-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

tip-to-side-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

side-to-side-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

side-to-side-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

L-shape-interlayer-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

L-shape-interlayer-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

diagonal-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

diagonal-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

corner-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

corner-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

interlayer-overlap-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

interlayer-overlap-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

via-chamfer-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

via-chamfer-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

merged-via-short-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

merged-via-leakage-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

snake-open-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

snake-resistance-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

stitch-open-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

stitch-resistance-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

via-open-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

via-resistance-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

metal-island-open-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

metal-island-resistance-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells;

merged-via-open-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells; and,

merged-via-resistance-configured, NCEM-enabled fill cells.