Integrated device and method for routing a signal through...

Details Integrated device and method for routing a signal through... Integrated device and method for routing a signal through...

1998-10-15

2002-04-30

Gandhi, Jayprakash N. (Department: 2841)

Electricity: electrical systems and devices

Housing or mounting assemblies with diverse electrical...

For electronic systems and devices

C361S733000, C361S790000, C361S803000, C257S686000, C257S723000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06381141

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates generally to electronic circuits, and more particularly to an integrated device that routes a signal through the device and to other devices in an integrated-circuit module.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In today's marketplace, consumers are pressuring manufacturers of electronic products to squeeze more functionality into a smaller space. For example, consumers want smaller and lighter personal computers, such as laptops, that have faster, more powerful processors and greater memory capacity.
FIG. 1
is a side view of an integrated-circuit (IC) module
10
, which allows manufactures to reduce the circuit-board area, and thus the overall size, of electronic products such as personal computers. The module
10
includes a number of integrated devices
12
, which are stacked one atop the other, and is mounted to a circuit board
14
. Therefore, no matter how many devices
12
it includes, the module
10
occupies the circuit-board area of only one device
12
. This is a significant reduction in occupied area as compared to a scheme where the devices
12
are laid out side by side on the board
14
.
More specifically, each of the devices
12
in the module
10
has a conventional package that allows coupling of signals between the board
14
and all of the devices
12
. In the illustrated embodiment, the devices
12
each have a ball-grid-array (BGA) package, although other packages may be used as long as they allow stacking of the devices
12
to form the module
10
. Each device
12
includes a number of connection balls
16
, which are each coupled to a respective terminal
18
. A respective conductor
19
couples each of the terminals
18
to a respective terminal
20
that is aligned with the terminal
18
. For example, in the device
12
0
, the conductor
19
0
couples the terminal
18
0
to the terminal
20
0
. When the devices
12
are stacked to form the module
10
, respective conductive paths are formed by the connection balls
16
, the terminals
18
and
20
, and the conductors
19
. It is these conductive paths that couple respective signals between the circuit board
14
and all of the devices
12
in the module
10
. For example, one such conductive path is formed by the ball
16
0
, terminal
18
0
, conductor
19
0
, terminal
20
0
, ball
16
1
, and so on up to the terminal
20
n
. Therefore, so that the module
10
works properly, all of the devices
12
have the same pin out, i.e., receive the same signals on the same respective terminals
18
and provide the same signals on the same respective terminals
20
.
Unfortunately, referring to
FIG. 2
, which is a top view of one of the devices
12
of
FIG. 1
, the size of each device
12
is increased to accommodate signals that are not common to all of the devices
12
. For example, each device
12
is enabled by a respective chip-select signal CS
0
-CS
n
, which is received on a respective chip-select terminal
18
CS0
-
18
CSn
. If they were laid out side by side on the board
14
(FIG.
1
), then each of the devices
12
would need only one chip-select terminal
18
CS
. But because they are stacked, each device
12
has the same number of chip-select terminals
18
CS0
-
18
CSn
as there are devices
12
in the module
10
(FIG.
1
).
More specifically, for each unique signal such as a chip-select signal that they receive, the devices
12
each need n terminals, where n is the number of devices
12
in the module
10
(FIG.
1
). Thus, just one or two unique signals may cause a significant increase in the sizes of the devices
12
. For example, the device
12
0
(
FIG. 1
) responds only to CS
0
, and thus needs only the terminal
18
CS0
to function properly. That is, the device
12
0
has no need for CS
1
-CS
n
, and thus can function properly without the terminals
18
CS1
-
18
CSn
. But because the other devices
12
1
-
12
n
in the module
10
respond to CS
1
-CS
n
, respectively, the device
12
0
must also include the terminals
18
CS1
-
18
CSn
to form conductive paths that couple CS
1
-CS
n
to the devices
12
1
-
12
n
. For reasons including that the relative position of a device
12
in the module
10
is unknown during manufacture of the device
12
, each of the devices
12
1
-
12
n
also includes a respective set of terminals
18
CS0
-
18
CSn
.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5656856 (1997-08-01), Kweon
patent: 5715144 (1998-02-01), Ameen et al.
patent: 5723901 (1998-03-01), Katsumata
patent: 5783870 (1998-07-01), Mostafazadeh et al.
patent: 5963430 (1999-10-01), Londa
patent: 6084780 (2000-06-01), Happoya

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Integrated device and method for routing a signal through... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Integrated device and method for routing a signal through..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Integrated device and method for routing a signal through... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2902646