GB2152749A - Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light - Google Patents
Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- GB2152749A GB2152749A GB08401021A GB8401021A GB2152749A GB 2152749 A GB2152749 A GB 2152749A GB 08401021 A GB08401021 A GB 08401021A GB 8401021 A GB8401021 A GB 8401021A GB 2152749 A GB2152749 A GB 2152749A
- Authority
- GB
- United Kingdom
- Prior art keywords
- integrated circuits
- light
- integrated
- integrated circuit
- package
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Withdrawn
Links
- 239000000463 material Substances 0.000 claims description 4
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 230000005855 radiation Effects 0.000 claims description 3
- 239000004065 semiconductor Substances 0.000 claims description 3
- XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N Silicon Chemical compound [Si] XUIMIQQOPSSXEZ-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 9
- 229910052710 silicon Inorganic materials 0.000 description 9
- 239000010703 silicon Substances 0.000 description 9
- PCHJSUWPFVWCPO-UHFFFAOYSA-N gold Chemical compound [Au] PCHJSUWPFVWCPO-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 7
- 229910052737 gold Inorganic materials 0.000 description 7
- 239000010931 gold Substances 0.000 description 7
- 239000000919 ceramic Substances 0.000 description 5
- 239000004020 conductor Substances 0.000 description 3
- RYGMFSIKBFXOCR-UHFFFAOYSA-N Copper Chemical compound [Cu] RYGMFSIKBFXOCR-UHFFFAOYSA-N 0.000 description 1
- 229910052802 copper Inorganic materials 0.000 description 1
- 239000010949 copper Substances 0.000 description 1
- 238000001514 detection method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000005669 field effect Effects 0.000 description 1
- 230000003993 interaction Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000011664 signaling Effects 0.000 description 1
- 239000000758 substrate Substances 0.000 description 1
Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L31/00—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof
- H01L31/12—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof structurally associated with, e.g. formed in or on a common substrate with, one or more electric light sources, e.g. electroluminescent light sources, and electrically or optically coupled thereto
- H01L31/16—Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof structurally associated with, e.g. formed in or on a common substrate with, one or more electric light sources, e.g. electroluminescent light sources, and electrically or optically coupled thereto the semiconductor device sensitive to radiation being controlled by the light source or sources
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G02—OPTICS
- G02B—OPTICAL ELEMENTS, SYSTEMS OR APPARATUS
- G02B6/00—Light guides; Structural details of arrangements comprising light guides and other optical elements, e.g. couplings
- G02B6/24—Coupling light guides
- G02B6/42—Coupling light guides with opto-electronic elements
- G02B6/43—Arrangements comprising a plurality of opto-electronic elements and associated optical interconnections
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L2224/00—Indexing scheme for arrangements for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies and methods related thereto as covered by H01L24/00
- H01L2224/01—Means for bonding being attached to, or being formed on, the surface to be connected, e.g. chip-to-package, die-attach, "first-level" interconnects; Manufacturing methods related thereto
- H01L2224/42—Wire connectors; Manufacturing methods related thereto
- H01L2224/47—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process
- H01L2224/48—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process of an individual wire connector
- H01L2224/4805—Shape
- H01L2224/4809—Loop shape
- H01L2224/48091—Arched
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L2224/00—Indexing scheme for arrangements for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies and methods related thereto as covered by H01L24/00
- H01L2224/01—Means for bonding being attached to, or being formed on, the surface to be connected, e.g. chip-to-package, die-attach, "first-level" interconnects; Manufacturing methods related thereto
- H01L2224/42—Wire connectors; Manufacturing methods related thereto
- H01L2224/47—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process
- H01L2224/49—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process of a plurality of wire connectors
- H01L2224/491—Disposition
- H01L2224/4912—Layout
- H01L2224/49171—Fan-out arrangements
Landscapes
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Optics & Photonics (AREA)
- Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
- Electromagnetism (AREA)
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
- Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
- Power Engineering (AREA)
- Photo Coupler, Interrupter, Optical-To-Optical Conversion Devices (AREA)
- Optical Communication System (AREA)
Abstract
Integrated circuits (1) are interconnected to other integrated circuits by light signals. The information to be conveyed is encoded and modulated onto light. The integrated circuits incorporate light emitting diodes and photodiode receivers or similar, together with encoding and decoding circuitry (5 and 6) to handle the information transfer between integrated circuits. This is in preference to electrically inter-linking the integrated circuits. Separately packaged integrated circuits may be optically coupled and the principle may also be used to couple integrated circuits mounted in a single package. <IMAGE>
Description
SPECIFICATION
Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light
This invention relates to the interlinking of integrated circuits by means of photon radiation.
Integrated circuits are composed of silicon or similar material into which is etched and onto which is deposited materials to fabricate the electronic components. A circuit is composed of transistors, diodes, resistors and the like connected together in various combinations to form an integrated circuit. An integrated circuit performs a particular function. There are two classes of circuit-analogue, which handles continuously varying signals without discontinuity in operation; and digital, which operates (usually) in a binary discrete manner on a signal. The 'state of art' is such that 104-107 field effect transistors are incorporated on a VLSI (very large scale integrated) circuit which is fabricated on one piece of silicon. For instance, a microprocessor is a digital VLSI circuit and a phase locked loop is an MSI (medium scale integrated) analogue circuit.The circuit (s) are contained within a plastic, ceramic or similar package and the integrated circuit which is usually on a silicon substrate is connected physically to the package pins which are in turn soldered to printed circuit boards, and the packages interconnected electrically. It is expensive to connect (usually by gold filaments) the silicon circuitry to the electrical leads which connect the (plastic/ceramic) package to the printed circuit board(s).
Additionally the linking of packages together on printed circuit boards to perform a function such as a telephone exchange is very costly. A further expense is the detection and removal of faulty devices, especially as a VLSI circuit may have 40+ package pins.
The principle is to interconnect integrated circuits by light (photon radiation) rather than electrically by conductors. In other words the information that needs to be conveyed between integrated circuits is modulated onto light.
Due to the large bandwidth of light several signals which had to be electrically linked via a printed circuit board to other integrated circuits can be modulated onto one (or more) light signals and transmitted directly to other integrated circuits.
It is relatively easy to incorporate the signalling circuit sections into an integrated circuit, and by integrating one or more light emitting diodes the information can be sent to one or more integrated circuits. The receiving integrated circuits, and that can include the transmitting integrating circuit, can decode the signals by photodiodes and assimilate the information, may be even transmitting data back to the originating integrated circuit. Standard communication protocols and methods are available to implement the data transfer.
The current structure of integrated circuits is shown in Fig. 1. The semiconductor with the fabricated circuitry (6) is held on a mount (7) and electrically connected by gold filaments (5) to the package pins (4). The package pins are held within a plastic/ceramic or similar package (3) and are soldered to the conductors (2) of the printed circuit board (1).
Fig. 2 shows the integrated circuits incorporating the idea. Again the integrated circuit (9) chips are mounted on a carrier (6) and bonded to the package (5). The integrated circuit is electrically connected to the package pins (4) by gold filaments (8). But in the case of the package with the two chips the pins only supply power. The two chips interact by transferring information to each other by light emitters. The light paths (10) show the interaction between, in this example, two chips.
Also the upper chip has two further paths (2) to transmit (3) and receive information from other integrated circuits external to this package. The package on the right has only one integrated circuit but it receives data modulated on light from the other package and can also transmit light signals out via two paths.
Fig. 3 gives an example of an integrated circuit chip (see Fig. 2, number 9) enlarged with the light emitter and receiver circuitry. In Fig. 3 some circuitry (1) is shown outlined on the silicon (6). The power is supplied via the gold filaments (2) to the pads (3) linked to the circuitry. In the direction of reception or transmission (7) of the modulated light signals are the sections of circuitry (4) that handle the encoding/decoding of the signals. The rest of the circuitry (1) is connected to the light transmitter/receivers (4 and 5). In this example there are three directions of transmission and reception visible, and (4) might be a receiver incorporating a photodiode whereas the paired sections (5) might each be a transmitter and receiver each.
This idea can substantially reduce the number of package pins on VLSI circuits to as low as two, the two would be for supplying power to the integrated circuit chip.
Figure 1 View of two integrated circuits from above with the interior of the packages shown 1 Printed circuit board 5 Gold filament 2 Copper conductor link 6 Silicon chip 3 Plastic/ceramic package 7 Mount for chip 4 Pin 8 Integrated circuitry
Figure 2 View of two integrated circuits from above with interior of packages shown 1 Printed circuit board 6 Mount for chip 2 Path for light to travel 7 4 pins for electrical
between packages connection to other 3 Light path between two packages
packages 8 Gold filament 4 Pin 9 Silicon chip 5 Plastic/ceramic package 10 Two way light path
linking chips
Figure 3 Angled top and side view of a silicon chip with its circuitry and the light transmitter and receiver sections 1 Integrated circuitry 2 Gold filament 3 Pad connecting power supply to circuitry 4 Transmitter or receiver section 5 Transmitter and/or receiver section 6 Silicon/semiconductor material (chip) 7 Emission/reception direction of light for the transmitter/receiver handling that direction
Claims (8)
1. The integrated circuits are inter-linked by modulating information to be conveyed onto light (photon radiation)
2. Part of the integrated circuit can be linked by light to other integrated circuits and at the same time electrically as well for the purposes of transferring information.
3. A package (as shown in Fig. 2) may contain more than one integrated circuit chip and all claims apply to both 'internal to the package' and external light links between integrated circuits.
4. The claims (constrained by claim 3) apply to the transmission, and reception, of (complex) information between MSI or larger integrated circuits by modulated light. This permits a reduction in the number of package pins and filaments connecting integrated circuits and so simplifying or allowing more complex function circuits.
5. An MSI (medium scale integrated) circuit or larger incorporates 102 or more components.
6. Integrated circuits are those electronic circuitry fabricated on a semiconductor or similar material with claims 5 applied.
7. The information may be transmitted out of an integrated circuit and not terminate at another integrated circuit.
8. Power supplied to the integrated circuit may be either via the electrical leads and pins or by an integral photo-voltaic converter, but in this case allowing the integrated circuit chip(s) to be electrically isolated.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB08401021A GB2152749A (en) | 1984-01-14 | 1984-01-14 | Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB08401021A GB2152749A (en) | 1984-01-14 | 1984-01-14 | Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light |
Publications (2)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| GB8401021D0 GB8401021D0 (en) | 1984-02-15 |
| GB2152749A true GB2152749A (en) | 1985-08-07 |
Family
ID=10555024
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB08401021A Withdrawn GB2152749A (en) | 1984-01-14 | 1984-01-14 | Interconnection of integrated circuitry by light |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| GB (1) | GB2152749A (en) |
Cited By (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO1990004835A1 (en) * | 1988-10-19 | 1990-05-03 | Wendt Hans J | Digital computer with multiprocessor arrangement |
| US5280184A (en) * | 1992-04-08 | 1994-01-18 | Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Three dimensional integrated circuits with lift-off |
| US5335361A (en) * | 1991-12-11 | 1994-08-02 | Motorola, Inc. | Integrated circuit module with devices interconnected by electromagnetic waves |
| US5401983A (en) * | 1992-04-08 | 1995-03-28 | Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Processes for lift-off of thin film materials or devices for fabricating three dimensional integrated circuits, optical detectors, and micromechanical devices |
| US7851809B2 (en) * | 2005-11-09 | 2010-12-14 | Intel Corporation | Multi-chip assembly with optically coupled die |
Citations (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB963221A (en) * | 1961-06-07 | 1964-07-08 | Pye Ltd | Solid state circuits and micro circuits |
| GB1112992A (en) * | 1964-08-18 | 1968-05-08 | Texas Instruments Inc | Three-dimensional integrated circuits and methods of making same |
| GB1304591A (en) * | 1970-02-18 | 1973-01-24 | ||
| EP0019234A1 (en) * | 1979-05-21 | 1980-11-26 | International Business Machines Corporation | Semiconductor integrated circuit structure |
| GB2125620A (en) * | 1982-08-19 | 1984-03-07 | Western Electric Co | Integrated circuit array |
-
1984
- 1984-01-14 GB GB08401021A patent/GB2152749A/en not_active Withdrawn
Patent Citations (5)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB963221A (en) * | 1961-06-07 | 1964-07-08 | Pye Ltd | Solid state circuits and micro circuits |
| GB1112992A (en) * | 1964-08-18 | 1968-05-08 | Texas Instruments Inc | Three-dimensional integrated circuits and methods of making same |
| GB1304591A (en) * | 1970-02-18 | 1973-01-24 | ||
| EP0019234A1 (en) * | 1979-05-21 | 1980-11-26 | International Business Machines Corporation | Semiconductor integrated circuit structure |
| GB2125620A (en) * | 1982-08-19 | 1984-03-07 | Western Electric Co | Integrated circuit array |
Cited By (6)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WO1990004835A1 (en) * | 1988-10-19 | 1990-05-03 | Wendt Hans J | Digital computer with multiprocessor arrangement |
| US5335361A (en) * | 1991-12-11 | 1994-08-02 | Motorola, Inc. | Integrated circuit module with devices interconnected by electromagnetic waves |
| US5280184A (en) * | 1992-04-08 | 1994-01-18 | Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Three dimensional integrated circuits with lift-off |
| US5401983A (en) * | 1992-04-08 | 1995-03-28 | Georgia Tech Research Corporation | Processes for lift-off of thin film materials or devices for fabricating three dimensional integrated circuits, optical detectors, and micromechanical devices |
| US7851809B2 (en) * | 2005-11-09 | 2010-12-14 | Intel Corporation | Multi-chip assembly with optically coupled die |
| US8189361B2 (en) | 2005-11-09 | 2012-05-29 | Intel Corporation | Multi-chip assembly with optically coupled die |
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| GB8401021D0 (en) | 1984-02-15 |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| WAP | Application withdrawn, taken to be withdrawn or refused ** after publication under section 16(1) |