MULTI-PORTION SOCKET AND RELATED APPARATUSES
A multi-portion socket, related components, and systems having such socket/components are described herein.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to, but is not limited to, electronic devices, and in particular, to the field of electronic connections.
2. Description of Related Art
In the current state of integrated circuit technology, electronic devices such as a central processing unit (CPU), volatile memory, system on chip (SOC), and the like, are typically assembled into electronic packages. These electronic packages will commonly have a mating surface that is populated with conductive contacts or pads that are electrical contact points or interfaces for various signal, ground and power paths. The electronic packages and in some cases, the electronic devices themselves, are usually directly or indirectly mounted onto an underlying carrier or circuit board, such as, for example, a printed circuit board (PCB), a printed circuit card (PCC), a motherboard, and the like, via a surface mounted socket. The circuit boards, in turn, will electrically couple these mounted electronic packages or electronic devices to other components via conductive interconnects that are typically embedded in and/or are on the circuit board.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSEmbodiments of the present invention will be described referencing the accompanying drawings in which like references denote similar elements, and in which:
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments of the present invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that these specific details are not required in order to practice the disclosed embodiments of the present invention. In other instances, well-known electrical structures and circuits are shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the disclosed embodiments of the present invention.
The following description includes terms such as on, onto, over, top, underlying and the like, that are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as limiting. That is, these terms are terms that are relative only to a point of reference and are not meant to be interpreted as limitations but are instead, included in the following description to facilitate understanding of the various aspects of the invention.
According to various embodiments of the invention, a circuit board is provided that includes a multi-portioned receiver for receiving an electronic component, the multi-portioned receiver being coupled to an external substrate. For these embodiments, the external substrate may include a dielectric with a lower electrical loss tangent value than a dielectric that comprises the circuit board substrate. An electronic component, according to these embodiments, may be, for example, an electronic package that includes one or more electronic devices, heat dissipation components and one or more substrates. An electronic component may also be an electronic device without a package such as a die or a chip, a chipset, or any other electronic component having multiple conductive contacts or pads. An electronic device may be a central processing unit, system on chip (SOC), graphical co-processor, a digital signal processor, volatile memory, input/output device, chipset input/output hub, memory controller or other electronic devices. In various embodiments, the receiver, such as a socket, may be mounted on the circuit board, or may be embedded within the circuit board itself. The receiver may be comprised of at least two detachable portions, at least one of the portions being coupled to the external substrate.
In these embodiments, the first socket element 102 has a U-shape with an adaptedly shaped opening that allows the second socket element 104 to be received in the opening. When combined, the two socket elements 102 and 104 may form a socket having a substantially rectangular shape. In other embodiments, however, the first and second socket elements 102 and 104 may take on other shapes, thus resulting in a socket that may have a different shape other than a substantially rectangular shape.
For the embodiments, the electronic component 108 may be but is not limited to a land grid array (LGA) package, a micro pin grid array (mPGA) package, a pin grid array (PGA) package, and any other type of packages or electronic device that may be mounted onto, for example, a socket. In other embodiments, the electronic component 108 may be a bare electronic device, without a packaging substrate, that may be directly mounted onto a circuit board such as certain types of CPUs. In various embodiments, the electronic component 108 may include a flip-chip or other types of chips such as a wire-bonded chip. The package substrate 109 may be made of one or more dielectric and/or ceramic layers. Interconnects, such as vias and traces, may be included in the package substrate 109 and may electrically couple the various signal, ground and power paths of the electronic device in the electronic component 108 to the socket 100. In some embodiments, the package substrate 109, along with its interconnects, may be configured to direct selected signals, such as higher speed signals that are transmitted to and from the electronic device through a particular portion of the package substrate 109, while slower speed signals, ground and power may be directed through other portions of the package substrate 109.
In various embodiments, the socket 100 may receive electronic packages having multiple conductive contacts. For these embodiments a first socket element 102 and a second socket element 104 may combine to form the complete socket 100 (as depicted in
In various embodiments, the receiving feature (e.g., gap 116) may be used to mate with or receive one or more socket portions (e.g., second socket element 104). Although the receiving feature is depicted as being a gap 116 in
The circuit board substrate 112 may be electrically coupled to the first socket element 102 according to various embodiments. For the embodiments, the circuit board substrate 112 may be comprised of multiple interconnects, such as vias and traces, that are embedded in the circuit board substrate 112. These interconnects may represent separate signal, power and/or ground paths. In various embodiments, the circuit board substrate 112 may comprise of one or more layers of dielectrics. The dielectrics that make up the circuit board substrate 112 may have specific electrical loss tangent values associated with them. For example, according to one embodiment, the circuit board substrate 112 may be comprised of Fire Retardant-4 (FR4) dielectric having an electrical loss tangent value of about 0.020 to about 0.025.
According to some embodiments, the external substrate 106 may be external or physically detached from the circuit board substrate 112. In various embodiments, the external substrate 106 may be located adjacent to or on top of the surface of the circuit board substrate 112. The external substrate 106 may be comprised of multiple signal paths. For the embodiments, the external substrate 106 may further be comprised of a dielectric that may minimize signal loss particularly when the signal or signals are being transferred at a high rate. In various embodiments, the electrical loss tangent value of the dielectric comprising the external substrate 106 may be a fraction of the electrical loss tangent value of the dielectric that comprises the circuit board substrate 112. In some embodiments, the electrical loss tangent for the dielectric comprising the external substrate 106 is less than or equal to 0.010. In one embodiment, for example, the electrical loss tangent is from about 0.001 to about 0.005. Dielectrics used for the external substrate 106 may include but are not limited to a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) dielectric, a polyimide dielectric, a liquid crystal polymer dielectric, and the like.
The external substrate 106, which may be physically disjoined or detached from the circuit board substrate 112, may be used to carry multiple signals between the electronic component 108 and, for example, other electronic devices according to some embodiments. For the embodiments, the signals being carried by the external substrate 106 may be signals of higher speed than signals that may be transmitted through the circuit board substrate 112 according to various embodiments. Note that for these embodiments, the speed of a signal relates to the amount of data being transferred per given time period (e.g., bits or data transferred per second). In one embodiment, signals that may transfer through the external substrate 106 is transferred at a rate of 12 GT/s+ at a distance of around 6 inches. Of course, these numbers will vary depending upon several factors including for example, the type of material that comprises the external substrate 106.
In some embodiments, the first socket element 102 may facilitate slower speed signals destined for or originating from the electronic component 108 while higher speed signals destined for or originating from the electronic component 108 may be facilitated by the second socket element 104. For these embodiments, the references to higher speed signals and slower speed signals are in reference to the signals of different speeds that may be channeled through the first and second socket elements 102 and 104. In various embodiments, ground and power connection for the electronic component 108 may further be facilitated by the first socket element 102.
Referring to
For the embodiments, the second socket element 104 having a smaller height or thickness than the first socket element 102. As a result of this difference in height, a gap 408 is formed between the second socket element 104 and the circuit board substrate 112. For these embodiments, one end of the external substrate 106 is placed in the gap 408 and electrically coupled to the second socket element 104 via solder balls 404. In various embodiments, the height or thickness of the second socket element 104 may be reduced such that the gap 408 may be widened to allow for, for example, a thicker external substrate 106 to be inserted into the gap 408.
The package substrate 109 may be comprised of multiple interconnects (not shown) such as vias and traces according to some embodiments. These interconnects may be associated with various signal, ground and power paths for the electronic device contained in the electronic component t 108. For the embodiments, the interconnects, which may include traces and/or vias, may electrically couple the electronic device to the contacts 406 in the first socket element 102 and the second socket element 104 through conductive contacts (not shown) on the bottom surface of the package substrate 109. In some embodiments, selected signals such as higher speed signals traveling to and from the electronic component 108 may be channeled through the portion of the package substrate 109 surface that interfaces the second socket element 106 as indicated by ref. 409. For these embodiments, slower signals may be channeled through the package substrate 109 surface that interfaces the first socket element 102 as indicated by ref. 410. Further, ground and/or power may also be channeled through the package substrate 109 surface that interfaces the first socket element 102 (see ref. 410).
For the embodiments, the external substrate 106 is placed adjacent to or on the surface of the circuit board substrate 112 and may be a flexible circuit. In one embodiment, the external substrate 106 is a flex circuit such as a polyimide-based flex circuit. In other embodiments, however, the external substrate 106 may be a non-flex circuit. An external substrate 106 that is a flexible circuit may provide certain beneficial characteristics in some embodiments. For example, in one embodiment, a flexible circuit may allow for additional space on the surface of the circuit board substrate 112 for mounting additional components onto the circuit board substrate 112. That is, by using a flexible circuit as the external substrate 106, additional components may be mounted on the surface of the circuit board substrate 112 underneath the external substrate 106 as indicated by ref. 412. In addition, a flexible circuit may provide more tolerance for coupling the flexible circuit (i.e., external substrate 106) to other components. By providing extra tolerance, coupling of the external substrate 106 to other components may be facilitated by providing additional “slack” to properly couple with other components.
Although the first socket element 102 and the second socket element 104 depicted in
Referring to
In various embodiments, the external substrate 516 may be a flexible circuit that may facilitate the coupling of the external substrate 516 to the second socket elements 510 and 512. In some embodiments, additional components may be mounted onto the surface of the circuit board substrate 514 underneath the external substrate 516 (as indicated by ref. 524 in
In some embodiments, the external substrate 516 may transfer higher speed signals between the two electronic packages 502 and 504 through multiple signal paths that may be present in the external substrate 516. For these embodiments, slower signals, ground and/or power may transfer between the electronic packages 502 and 504 and/or other components through the first socket elements 506 and 508 and through the circuit board substrate 514.
In various embodiments, the circuit board signal paths 524 may include a plurality of traces and vias that form multiple signal paths between the two electronic packages 502 and 504. The circuit board signal paths 524 may also include one or more paths for ground and power, which may be directed away from the two electronic packages 502 and 504.
For these embodiments, it may be beneficial to locate the circuit board connector 614 close to the electronic package (e.g., chipset 616). That is, in some embodiments, the circuit board substrate 608 may be comprised of a dielectric that has a relatively high electrical loss tangent value such as an FR4 dielectric. Therefore, significant signal loss may occur as a signal is traveling between the circuit board connector 614 and chipset 616 if the distance between the two is large. The amount of loss, of course, will depend on several factors including, for example, the frequencies of the signals being transmitted and the actual distance being traveled through the circuit board substrate 608 by the signal. By locating the circuit board connector 614 close to the directly soldered or bonded electronic package (e.g., chipset 616), signal loss that may occur between the circuit board connector 614 and for example, the chipset 616, may be reduced.
In various embodiments, the first circuit board signal paths 620 may include a plurality of traces and vias that form multiple signal paths between the electronic package 602 and the chipset 616. The first circuit board signal paths 620 may also include one or more paths for ground and power, which may be directed away from the electronic package 602 and the chipset 616. Although not shown, the first circuit board signal paths 620 may further be coupled with other circuit board components.
Unlike the embodiment depicted in
In addition to the embodiments described above, other configurations are possible in other embodiments. For example, in other embodiments, two electronic packages that are both bonded or soldered directly on to a circuit board substrate may also be coupled via an external substrate using, for example, two circuit board connectors. Further, in some embodiments, more than two electronic packages may be linked together on a circuit board substrate via multiple external substrates.
Other embodiments includes, for example, a socket that includes more than two socket elements such as a socket having three, four, five or more socket elements, where three or more of the socket elements may be coupled to three or more substrates. In such embodiments, the three or more substrates may be coupled to two or more electronic components thus linking the socket to multiple electronic components through three or more substrates.
Referring to
According to another embodiment, the first electronic component 702 may transmit signals to the second electronic component 704 through only the external substrate signal paths and not through the circuit board signal paths as depicted in
According to another embodiment, each set of signal paths (external substrate signal paths and the circuit board signal paths) may allow bi-directional signal transmissions as depicted in
In some embodiments, the signals being transmitted and received by an electronic component may use the same and/or different signal paths (i.e., external substrate signal paths and/or circuit board signal paths) for transmitting and receiving signals. For example, in some embodiments, the first electronic component 702 may use the same external substrate signal paths for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the second electronic component 704. Such signal paths may represent true bi-directional signal paths. Similarly, the first electronic component 702 may use the same circuit board signal paths for both receiving and transmitting signals to and from the second electronic component 704. In other embodiments, however, the first electronic component 702, may use, for example, only specific external substrate paths for receiving signals from the second electronic component 704, while other external substrate paths may be used only for transmitting signals to the second electronic component 704. Similarly, for such embodiments, some of the circuit board substrate paths may be dedicated for transmitting signals from the first electronic component 702 to the second electronic component 704 while other circuit board substrate paths may be dedicated for receiving signals by the first electronic component 702 from the second electronic component 704. In yet other embodiments, the signals paths used by, for example, the first electronic component 702 may include a combination of both bi-directional signal paths as well as one or unidirectional signal paths (external substrate signal paths and/or circuit board signal paths).
In the following, examples of different signaling schemes between the first and the second electronic components 702 and 704 via the circuit board signal paths and/or the external substrate signal paths are provided according to various embodiments.
In the first example, the first electronic component 702 transmits a plurality of first signals at a first signal speed through the circuit board signal paths to the second electronic component 704. The first electronic component 702 further transmits a plurality of second signals at a second signal speed through the external substrate signal paths to the second electronic component 704. In various embodiments, the second signal speed may be higher than the first signal speed. In some embodiments, the second electronic component 704 may transmit and the first electronic component 702 may receive, a plurality of third signals at a third signal speed via either the circuit board signal paths or the external substrate signal paths. If the plurality of third signals are received through the circuit board signal paths, then the third signal speed of the plurality of third signals may be lower than the second signal speed of the plurality of second signals and may be equal to the first signal speed of the plurality of first signals. In some embodiments, at least some of the first and third signals may be transmitted and received through the same signal paths (e.g., bi-directional circuit board signal paths). If, on the other had, the plurality of third signals are received by the first electronic component 702 through the external substrate signal paths, then the third signal speeds of the plurality of third signals may be higher than the first signal speed of the plurality of first signals and may be equal to the second signal speed of the plurality of second signals. In some embodiments, at least some of the second and third signals may be transmitted and received thorough the same signal paths (e.g., bi-directional external substrate signal paths).
In a second example, the second electronic component 704 may transmit and the first electronic component 702 may receive, a plurality of first signals at a first signal speed via the circuit board signal paths. The second electronic component 704 may further transmit and the first electronic component 702 may further receive, a plurality of second signals at a second signal speed via the external substrate signal paths. In some embodiments, the first electronic component 702 may transmit and the second electronic component 704 may receive, a plurality of third signals at a third signal speed via either the circuit board signal paths or the external substrate signal paths. In some embodiments, the second signal speed of the plurality of second signals may be higher than the first signal speed of the plurality of first signals.
In a third example, the first electronic component 702 may transmit and the second electronic component 704 may receive, a plurality of first signals at a first signal speed via the circuit board signal paths. In this example, the second electronic component 704 may transmit and the first electronic component 702 may receive, a plurality of second signals at a second signal speed via the external substrate signal paths. In some embodiments, the second signal speed of the plurality of second signals may be higher than the first signal speed of the plurality of first signals.
Referring now to
Depending on the applications, the system 800 may include other components, including but not limited to chipsets, RF transceivers, mass storage (such as hard disk, compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), graphical or mathematic co-processors, and so forth.
One or more of the system components may be located on a single chip such as a system on chip (SOC). In various embodiments, the system 800 may be a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless mobile phone, a tablet computing device, a laptop computing device, a desktop computing device, a set-top box, an entertainment control unit, a digital camera, a digital video recorder, a media recorder, a media player, a CD player, a DVD player, a network server, or device of the like.
Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiment shown. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the claims.
Claims
1. An apparatus, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a first portion of a first socket disposed at a first end of the substrate, and adapted to at least contribute towards completing the first socket, the first socket to receive a first component, and having at least two portions, said first portion and first at least one other portion;
- a second portion of a second socket disposed at a second end of the substrate, and adapted to at least contribute towards completing the second socket, the second socket to receive a second component, and the second socket having at least two portions, said second portion and second at least one other portion; and
- the first and second portions and the substrate are further adapted to facilitate the first and second components to communicate with each other through the first and second portions and the substrate at a first signaling speed, that is different from a second signal speed the first and second components communicate with each other through the first and second at least one other portions.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises a dielectric selected from the group consisting of a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), a polyimide and a liquid crystal polymer dielectric.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate comprises a dielectric having an electrical loss tangent of less than or equal to about 0.010.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a flex circuit, and the first signal speed is faster than the second signal speed.
5. (canceled)
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first component comprises a central processing unit, and the first socket comprises a land grid array socket.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the substrate is a printed circuit board, and the second signal speed is faster than the first signal speed.
8-23. (canceled)
24. A system comprising:
- a circuit board having: a first portion of first socket disposed at a first location of the circuit board, and adapted to at least contribute towards completing the first socket, the first socket to receive a first component, and having at least two portions, said first portion and first at least one other portion; a second portion of a second socket disposed at a second location of the circuit board, adapted to at least contribute towards completing the second socket, the second socket to receive a second component, and the second socket having at least two portions, said second portion and second at least one other portion; and the first and second portions and the circuit board are further adapted to facilitate the first and second components to communicate with each other through the first and second portions and the circuit board at a first signal speed, that is different from a second signal speed the first and second components communicate with each other through the first and second at least one other portions; and
- a mass storage device coupled to the circuit board.
25-28. (canceled)
29. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is selected from a group consisting of a set-top box, a media recorder, and a media player.
30. The system of claim 24, wherein the system further comprises
- a connector apparatus to couple said first portion of the first socket to said second portion of the second socket, having a substrate, a third portion of the first at least one other portion of the first socket disposed at a first end of the substrate, and adapted to cooperate with the first portion of the first socket to receive the first component, a fourth portion of the second at least one other portion of the second socket disposed at a second end of the substrate, and adapted to cooperate with the second socket to receive the second component, and the third and fourth portions and the substrate are further adapted to facilitate the first and second components to communicate with each other through the third and fourth portions and the substrate at the second signaling speed.
31. The system of claim 30, wherein the second signal speed is faster than the first signal speed.
32. The system of claim 29, wherein the first component comprises a central processing unit, and the first socket comprises a land grid array socket.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 24, 2004
Publication Date: Dec 29, 2005
Inventor: Mark Trobough (Olympia, WA)
Application Number: 10/877,323