STACKABLE ELECTRONIC COMPONENT
An embodiment of an electronic component includes a circuit element disposed within a package, which includes a surface and at least one standoff protruding from the surface. For example, where the circuit element is an inductor in a power supply, the standoff may allow one to mount the inductor component over another component, such as a transistor component. Therefore, the layout area of such a power supply may be smaller than the layout area of a power supply in which the inductor and transistor components are mounted side by side.
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This application is a Divisional of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 12/202,985 filed on Sep. 2, 2008, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/967,151 filed on Aug. 31, 2007, which is incorporated by reference.
SUMMARYThis Summary is provided to introduce, in a simplified form, a selection of concepts that are further described below in the Detailed Description.
This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
An embodiment of an electronic component includes a package and a circuit element disposed within the package, which includes a surface and a standoff protruding from the surface.
For example, where the circuit element is an inductor in a power supply, the standoff may allow one to mount the inductor component over another component, such as a transistor component. Therefore, the layout area of such a power supply may be smaller than the layout area of a power supply in which the inductor and transistor components are mounted side by side.
In addition to the transistors 14 and 16 and the inductor component 18, the power supply 10 includes current sensors 201-20n, a power-supply controller 22, a filter capacitor 24, and an optional filter inductor 26. An inductor L and the high-side and low-side transistors 14 and 16 coupled to the inductor at a phase intermediate node INT compose a respective phase 12. For example, the inductor L1 and the transistors 141 and 161 compose the phase 121.
The high-side transistors 141-14n, which are each switched “on” and “off” by the controller 22, are power NMOS transistors that are respectively coupled between input voltages VIN1-VINn and the nodes INT1-INTn. Alternatively, the transistors 141-14n may be other than power NMOS transistors, and may be coupled to a common input voltage. Moreover, the transistors 141-14n may be integrated on the same die as the controller 22, may be integrated on a same die that is separate from the die on which the controller is integrated, or may be disposed on discrete transistor components as discussed below in conjunction with
Similarly, the low-side transistors 161-16n, which are each switched on and off by the controller 22, are power NMOS transistors that are respectively coupled between low-side voltages VL1-VLn and the nodes INT1-INTn of the inductors L1-Ln. Alternatively, the transistors 161-16n may be other than power NMOS transistors, and may be coupled to a common low-side voltage such as ground. Moreover, the transistors 161-16n may be integrated on the same die as the controller 22, may be integrated on a same die that is separate from the die on which the controller is integrated, may be integrated on a same die as the high-side transistors 161-16n, may be integrated on respective dies with the corresponding high-side transistors 161-16n (e.g., transistors 141 and 161 on a first die, transistors 142 and 162 on a second die, and so on), or may be disposed on discrete transistor components as discussed below in conjunction with
The inductors L1-Ln of the inductor component 18 may be magnetically coupled to one another, may be magnetically uncoupled from one another, or some of the inductors may be magnetically coupled and others of the inductors may be magnetically uncoupled. Power supplies incorporating magnetically coupled inductors, magnetically uncoupled inductors, or both magnetically coupled and magnetically uncoupled inductors, are discussed in the following U.S. patent applications, which are incorporated by reference: application Ser. No. 11/903,185 filed Sep. 19, 2007, application Ser. Nos. 12/136,014, 12/136,018, 12/136,023 all filed Jun. 9, 2008, and application Ser. No. 12/189,112 filed Aug. 8, 2008.
The current sensors 201-20n respectively generate sense signals IFB1-IFBn, which respectively represent the phase currents i1-in. For example, each of the signals IFB1-IFBn may be a respective voltage that has substantially the same signal phase as the corresponding phase current i and that has an amplitude that is substantially proportional to the amplitude of the corresponding phase current.
The controller 22 may be any type of controller suitable for use in a power supply, is supplied by voltages VDDcontroller and VSScontroller, and receives the regulated output voltage Vout, a reference voltage Vref, and the sense signals IFB1-IFBn, which are fed back to the controller from the current sensors 201-20n, respectively. The controller 22 may use Vref and the fed back Vout and IFB1-IFBn to conventionally regulate Vout to a specified value.
The filter capacitor 24 is coupled between the regulated output voltage Vout and a voltage VSScap, and works in concert with the inductors L1-Ln and the optional filter inductor 26 (if present) to maintain the amplitude of the steady-state ripple-voltage component of Vout within a desired range, which may be on the order of hundreds of microvolts (μV) to tens of millivolts (mV). Although only one filter capacitor 24 is shown, the power supply 10 may include multiple filter capacitors coupled in electrical parallel. Furthermore, multiple serially coupled LC filter stages (each stage would be similar to the stage formed by the optional filter inductor 26 and the filter capacitor 24) may be disposed between Vout and the inductors L1-Ln, and the feedback to the controller 22 may be taken from Vout (the output of the last filter stage) or from any one of the previous filter stages. Moreover, VSScap may be equal to VSScontroller and to VL1-VLn; for example, all of these voltages may equal ground.
The optional filter inductor 26 may be omitted from the power supply 10. For example, the filter inductor 26 may be omitted if the inductors L1-Ln are not magnetically coupled to one another, or if the inductors L1-Ln are magnetically coupled to one another and the respective leakage inductances of the inductors L1-Ln are sufficient to perform the specified inductive filtering function. Omitting the filter inductor 26 may reduce the size (e.g., the layout area) and component count of the power supply 10, and may eliminate a component through which the total supply current (i.e., i1+i2+. . . +in) flows.
The power supply 10 may provide the regulated voltage Vout to a load 28, such as a microprocessor or other electronic load.
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The transistor components 421-42n respectively include the high-side drive transistors 141-14n of
The corresponding leads of each high-side/low-side pair of transistor components 42 and 44 are coupled to a respective conductive trace 48 on the circuit board 46, where the conductive trace corresponds to a respective node INT of
The inductor component 18 includes a package 50, which is shown in phantom dashed line, the inductors L1-Ln, which are disposed inside of the package and which are omitted from
The package 50 includes an upper surface 56, which faces away from the circuit board 46, and a lower surface 58, which faces toward the circuit board. The package 50 may be formed from plastic, ceramic, or any other suitable material.
Protruding from the lower surface 56 are supports (hereinafter standoffs) 601 and 602, which together with the lower surface, form a recess 62, which receives, at least partially, the transistor components 42 and 44. That is, a depth d of the recess 62 is greater than or equal to the height h of the transistor components 42 and 44 so that the when the inductor component 18 is positioned over the transistor components 42 and 44, the standoffs 601 and 602 contact the circuit board 46, and thus support the inductor component over the transistor components. Therefore, the standoffs 601 and 602 allow one to stack the inductor component 18 and the transistor components 42 and 44.
Each of the leads 521-52n is coupled to the drive node (the node respectively corresponding to the node INT1-INTn of
In contrast, the lead 54 is coupled to the output nodes of all of the inductors L1-Ln, and is soldered to a circuit-board trace (not shown in
In an embodiment of the power-supply portion 40, the height of the inductor component 18 measured at its upper surface 56 may be less than or equal to about 4 mm, which may be low enough for many power-supply applications.
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Alternate embodiments of the power-supply portion 40 and the inductor component 18 of
Alternate embodiments of the power-supply portion 40 and the inductor component 18 of
Alternate embodiments of the power-supply portion 40 and the inductor component 18 of
The inductor component 18 includes a package 102 having upper and lower surfaces 56 and 58, and standoffs 1041 and 1042, which are similar to the standoffs 721 and 722 of
Alternate embodiments of the power-supply portion 100 and the inductor component 18 of
The system 110 includes computer circuitry 114 for performing computer functions, such as executing software to perform desired calculations and tasks. The circuitry 114 typically includes a controller, processor, or one or more other integrated circuits (ICs) 116, and the power supply 112, which provides power to the IC(s) 116. One or more input devices 118, such as a keyboard or a mouse, are coupled to the computer circuitry 114 and allow an operator (not shown) to manually input data thereto. One or more output devices 120 are coupled to the computer circuitry 114 to provide to the operator data generated by the computer circuitry. Examples of such output devices 120 include a printer and a video display unit. One or more data-storage devices 122 are coupled to the computer circuitry 114 to store data on or retrieve data from external storage media (not shown). Examples of the storage devices 122 and the corresponding storage media include drives that accept hard and floppy disks, tape cassettes, compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs), and digital-versatile disks (DVDs).
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the description. Furthermore, where an alternative is disclosed for a particular embodiment, this alternative may also apply to other embodiments even if not specifically stated.
Claims
1. A method, comprising:
- placing a first component over a circuit board; and
- placing a first portion of a second component over the first component such that a second portion of the second component contacts the circuit board, and such that the first and second portions of the second component define a space within which is located the first component.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein placing the first component comprises placing the first component in contact with the circuit board.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least partially filling a space between the first component and the first portion of the second component with a thermally conductive material.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein placing the first and second components comprises soldering the first component and the second portion of the second component to the board.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein:
- placing the first component comprises coupling a lead of the first component to a conductive path disposed on the circuit board; and
- placing the second component comprises coupling a lead of the second component to the conductive path.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 26, 2012
Publication Date: Apr 4, 2013
Applicant: INTERSIL AMERICAS LLC (Milpitas, CA)
Inventor: INTERSIL AMERICAS LLC (Milpitas, CA)
Application Number: 13/685,416
International Classification: H05K 3/34 (20060101);