WO2008032150A2 - Simultaneous bidirectional cable interface - Google Patents

Simultaneous bidirectional cable interface Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2008032150A2
WO2008032150A2 PCT/IB2007/002330 IB2007002330W WO2008032150A2 WO 2008032150 A2 WO2008032150 A2 WO 2008032150A2 IB 2007002330 W IB2007002330 W IB 2007002330W WO 2008032150 A2 WO2008032150 A2 WO 2008032150A2
Authority
WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
cable
connection
integrated
circuit
module circuit
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IB2007/002330
Other languages
French (fr)
Other versions
WO2008032150A3 (en
Inventor
Marti Voutilainen
Original Assignee
Nokia Corporation
Priority date (The priority date 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 date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority claimed from US11/653,929 external-priority patent/US7803017B2/en
Application filed by Nokia Corporation filed Critical Nokia Corporation
Publication of WO2008032150A2 publication Critical patent/WO2008032150A2/en
Publication of WO2008032150A3 publication Critical patent/WO2008032150A3/en

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    • H01L23/3157—Partial encapsulation or coating
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    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
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    • H04L25/02—Details ; arrangements for supplying electrical power along data transmission lines
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    • H04L—TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION
    • H04L5/00—Arrangements affording multiple use of the transmission path
    • H04L5/14—Two-way operation using the same type of signal, i.e. duplex
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Definitions

  • the present invention relates to an integrated cable module circuit, a cable connec- tion for simultaneous bidirectional signaling comprising the integrated cable module circuit, the use of such integrated cable module circuit and of such cable connection and a method of manufacture for the integrated cable module circuit as well as the cable connection.
  • Serial high-speed interfaces use typically one differential wire pair or one optical fiber, also called one lane, per direction. For instance, two pairs are used for bidirectional transmission, in data transmission as, for instance, in serial ATA (advanced technology attachment) and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express (PCIe), which uses existing PCI programming concepts, but on a completely differ- ent and much faster serial physical-layer communications protocol.
  • PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect Express
  • each lane utilizes two unidirectional low voltage differential signaling pairs at 2.5 Gb/s. Transmit and receive are separate differential pairs, for a total of 4 data wires per lane. As with all high-speed serial transmission protocols, clocking information must be embedded in the signal.
  • PCIe utilizes the very common 8B/10B encoding scheme to ensure that strings of consecutive ones or consecutive zeros are limited in length, so that the receiver does not lose track of where the bit edges are. This coding scheme replaces 8 uncoded (payload) bits of data with 10 (encoded) bits of transmitted data, consuming 20% of the overall electrical bandwidth.
  • one lane may be used for both directions, by using of the lane with a time division access (time-shared) scheme, where given (or negotiated) time slots are used for transmission from end A to end B or vice versa, respectively, which is used in Universal serial Bus (USB), for example.
  • time-shared time division access
  • USB Universal serial Bus
  • Fig. 1 The basic principle of simultaneous bidirectional signaling is illustrated in Fig. 1. If unit A sends a pulse via cable 10 to unit B, part of the pulse reflects back to unit A from impedance discontinuities in connectors 21 , 22, and impedance mismatch of the intended receiver 32 (and/or electro static discharge (ESD) suppression components (not shown)) at unit B. This results in only low bit rate signaling in simultaneous bidirectional links having connectors, as it is the case in all of the above- discussed applications.
  • ESD electro static discharge
  • Fig. 1 the signal driver 41 of unit A sends a pulse into the cable 10, but at the same time the same pulse is supplied to reference input pins of receiving comparator 31 by means of replica driver 51.
  • the effect of the supplied pulse from the replica driver 51 to the receiving comparator 31 is illustrated for a single-ended signaling in Fig. 2 (left part of the Fig.).
  • one lane is enough for high bandwidth low-latency transmission. If the required bandwidth is so large that a time-shared lane is not able to meet bandwidth and latency requirements, the number of required lanes (one differential wire pair or one optical fiber) is to be doubled in an interconnection cable. However, many protocols require low latency acknowledge signal back, which makes timesharing of a common lane impossible.
  • a cable connection comprising at least one cable as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cable module circuits connected to conductors of the cable at respective ends of the cable, wherein at least signal wires of the conductors of the cable are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end of the cable with respective contacts of the respective cable module circuit, wherein the cable module circuits are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable connection.
  • ing of the electronic device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the electronic device may be moved with respect to each other, and wherein the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
  • a integrated circuit comprising contacts for interconnection of the integrated circuit, which is a cable module circuit arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection; wherein the cable module circuit is adapted to be connected to a cable for a wire conducted signal interconnection via the cable with another cable module circuit connected to conductors of the cable at the other end of the cable; wherein at least signal wires of the conductors of the cable are to be directly and permanent electrical connected to the cable module circuit.
  • a method of manufacture comprising cutting a cable to a required predetermined length; fabricating integrated cable module circuits which are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable; and connecting directly with a permanent method conductors of the cable at each cable end with respective contacts of the respective integrated cable module circuits; wherein in fabricating of the integrated cable module circuits input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuits connected to conductors of the cable are matched to the respective cable impedance.
  • a method of manufacture comprising fabricating an integrated cable module circuit, which is arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection, wherein at least respective input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuit are matched to a cable impedance which is predetermined by a cable to be connected to the integrated cable module circuit.
  • directly means, for example, that at least the signal wires of the conductors of the cable connection are directly bonded by a suitable method or process, for instance, such as ultrasonic or laser bonding to bonding pads at the cable module IC.
  • a suitable method or process for instance, such as ultrasonic or laser bonding to bonding pads at the cable module IC.
  • a separate support board may be used for the signal wire(s), which can, for instance, be connected or bonded, respectively, by gold or aluminum wire bonding from the support board to respective bonding pad(s) of the cable module IC.
  • “directly” may also include cases where the signal wire of the cable connection is connected to a contact, such as a contact pad, of a printed wiring board (PCB), which may be a separate small PCB, from where the electrical or signal connection is made with the cable module IC, for which, for example, traditional or flip chip (FC) IC packaging can be used.
  • PCB printed wiring board
  • FC flip chip
  • support board may be, for example, also be understood a lead frame of a conventional IC packaging to which the cable module IC is interconnected, where contact pads of the lead frame are used for connection to the at least signal wires of the cable connection.
  • the kind or type of cable for the cable connection which may be comprised of a shielded pair cable, which, thus, may be used for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling.
  • the cable connection may be made of a coaxial cable.
  • a pair of coaxial cables can be used, which allows for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling.
  • Another aspect is the cable module circuit, each of which in one embodiment comprises sending and receiving means for sending and receiving a wire-conducted signal via the respective cable connection, such as a transmitter-receiver unit or transceiver unit for short.
  • Each of the cable module circuits can be precisely adapted to respective electrical properties of the cable, such as the impedance and/or used cable length. Accordingly, by matching of input and output impedances of the cable module circuits, which are connected to conductors of the cable, to the respective cable impedance reflections of a signal conducted via the cable connection are reduced. Impedance matching is made to the cable module circuits, such as the afore-mentioned transceiver units, as a whole including potentially used mechanical connection components like printed wiring boards and integrated circuit (IC) packages.
  • the transceivers units of the cable module circuit can be designed to provide multi-gigabit bidirectional data transmission via the cable connec- tion.
  • the outer conductor when the cable comprises an outer conductor, the outer conductor may be connected to a ground potential of the cable module circuit at least at one end of the cable. Additionally or alternatively, when the cable may be provided with an outer conductor having a predetermined thickness, which may be adapted such that electronic discharge pulses of a certain energy level are attenuated such that dedicated electronic discharge protection (ESD) circuit can be limited or even omitted at the cable module circuit.
  • ESD electronic discharge protection
  • the surface transfer impedance is about 1 m ⁇ (milliohm) to tens of milliohms. Accordingly, with about 1 m ⁇ surface transfer impedance a ESD signal in the range of 10 kV could be attenuated to about 1/1000 thereof, that is about 10 V that would be tolerable by normal integrated circuits having about 2 kV ESD tolerance, which is required for manufacturability thereof.
  • the cable module circuits are implemented as integrated cable module circuits.
  • at least one of the contacts (or contact means) at the integrated cable module circuit can be a contact pad for a bonding interconnection.
  • At least one of the contacts (or contact means) at the integrated cable module circuit may be at least one of a direct bump on a contact pad, a bump on a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a bump on a thick repas- sivation or redistribution pad. Accordingly, at least the signal wires of the cable can then be directly and permanent electrically connected to some of these contacts.
  • At least one cable of the cable connection is fixed to a support board, which can be a separate support board with respect to the cable module circuit or with respect to the circuit board to which the cable module circuit is mounted.
  • the support board may also be the circuit board on which the cable module circuit is mounted.
  • a lead frame to which the integrated cable module circuit is interconnected may be understood as a support board in this context.
  • At the support board at least the signal wire of the cable is then directly and permanent (inter)connected from the support board to a respective con- tact (or contact means) of the integrated cable module circuit.
  • This connection may comprise a bonding wire or any other suitable electrical connection means.
  • the cable module and the direct and permanent interconnection to the cable can at least at one end of the cable be sealed and/or protected by cover means or a cover made by or of suitable molded material or hardened material, such as a epoxy shielding, a molded resin or alike.
  • the respective cable module circuit may be packed at least at one end of the cable connection into a circuit package, which then com- prises connection means for connection of the cable module to a circuit board.
  • the contacts or connection means can be at least one of a connection pin, a connection bump, a connection ball or a combination thereof for a permanent mounting of the packed integrated circuit to a circuit board.
  • the packaging can be arranged for surface mounting (SMT) mounting or for through hole mounting processes. Again, at least one signal wire of the cable connection may then be directly and permanent connected to the cable module circuit via a printed wiring board having respective electrical connections to the contacts of the packed integrated cable module circuit.
  • SMT surface mounting
  • SOIC small outline IC
  • SOJ small outline IC
  • FC flip chip
  • the carrier provides for the connection from the chip to the exterior of the package.
  • the interconnection between the chip and the package carrier is made using bond wires.
  • the chip is attached to the carrier face up, and then a wire is bonded first to the chip, then looped and bonded to the carrier.
  • Wires are typically 1-5 mm in length, and 25-35 ⁇ m in diameter.
  • interconnection is made through conductive contact balls, so-called bumps, that are placed directly on the chip surface to contacts of the integrated circuits, which may be the above-mentioned implementation as bump on a contact pad, bump on a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a bump on a thick repassivation or redistribution pad.
  • the bumped chip can then flipped over and placed or mounted in a face down arrangement, namely the flip chip arrangement, with the bumps connecting to the carrier or the circuit board directly.
  • a bump is typically 70-100 ⁇ m high, and 100-125 ⁇ m in diameter.
  • the FC connection may generally be formed in using solder or using conductive adhesive.
  • FC arrangement for the integrated cable module circuits provides for reduced signal inductance due to the interconnect being shorter in length. Hence, the inductance of the signal path can be reduced, which improves signal quality in high-speed communication. Further, also power/ground inductance(s) may be reduced.
  • FC arrangement interconnects to power and ground potential can be brought directly into the core of the chip, rather than having to be routed to edges of a carrier thereof. This results in a further decrease of noise of the core power, which improves performance of the silicon.
  • the entire surface of the chip can be used for interconnection, which provides for higher signal density. Moreover, the size of the chip can be reduced since chip size is no longer determined by the edge space required for bonding pads, by which silicon can be save but also a smaller integrated cable modules can be achieved.
  • connection means are a connector adapted for connecting the packed integrated cable module circuit to a corresponding connector port located at a circuit board.
  • connection means to the cable module circuits comprise connection contacts for data input and output to the cable module and power supply contacts for providing electrical power to the cable module circuit.
  • the cable connection is used for a simultaneous bidirectional sig- naling interconnection between a mobile electronic device and a periphery device thereof.
  • the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone and the periphery device is a headset with a display, a camera module or a combination thereof.
  • basically the disclosed simultaneous bidirectional signaling interconnection may be used for interconnection between any kinds of electronic devices or modules.
  • the mobile electronic device is a portable computer device, such as a laptop or a personal digital assistant, and the cable connection is used for a simultaneous bidirectional signaling interconnection between a graphic display and a respective display of the portable computer device.
  • the electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device may be located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device, wherein the parts of the housing of the mobile device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device may be moved with respect to each other, and the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection for interconnecting the electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device may be located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device.
  • the cable connection can connect the main board of the computer to a display of the computer, which display is usually attached to the mobile device by means of a hinge or sliding mechanics or other suitable mechanical movable (rotatable, rockable, pivotable, turnable or any combination thereof) connection.
  • the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone.
  • the cable connection may then be an interconnection for Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance M-PHY protocol.
  • each of the cable module circuit comprises multi-gigabit bidirectional transceivers.
  • the method may further comprise packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a package to form a cable connector module at each end of the cable.
  • the cable connection can be manufactured as an entity by one manufacturing line or process.
  • the in- tegrated cable module circuits made by a certain manufacturer and the required cable to be used in a certain application is provided by a cable manufacturer.
  • at least the length of the cable to be used which length normally is indicated by the intended application, has impact on electrical characteristics of the cable, such as cable impedance, to which the inte- grated cable module circuits are to be adapted.
  • the method may alternatively further comprise packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a housing having a connector for attaching the cable module to a respective port connector at a circuit board.
  • signal wires of the cable connection may be direct bonded to contact pads of the integrated cable module circuits.
  • the integrated cable module circuits arranging in a flip chip arrangement; and contacts of the integrated cable module circuits are provided with contactable bumps or pins. Then, the conductors of the cable at each cable end can be connected to the respective contactable bumps or pins.
  • the cable is fixed in a through hole of a printed circuit board; and at least the signal wire of the conductors of the cable are connected at the other side of the printed circuit board to the respective contactable bumps or pins of the respective integrated cable module circuit.
  • the cable connection can be used inside or outside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device. Parts of the housing of the mobile device may be mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device can be moved with respect to each other.
  • the cable connection can be used running through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
  • the general idea is based on the perception that by arranging a highspeed, such as a multi-gigabit, bidirectional transceiver circuit inside a cable connector module to which the cable for the connection is directly connected, additional loads, for example caused by ESD suppression components, can be eliminated from the cable connecting modules/units. In this way, required impedance matching can be designed to be good enough to prevent too large part of the signal transmitted via the cable connection from reflecting back into the original source of the signal, such as pulse(s).
  • connection can well protected from all kind of disturbance, such as, for example, human touch or over-voltages.
  • additional loads from ESD-protection, which would generate reflections, are not re- quired.
  • very high simultaneous bidirectional bit rates can be achieved by this kind of "clean" interconnection between electronic units or modules.
  • the provided method makes the connection from the driver circuit into the cable easily controlla- ble.
  • the cable assembly manufacturer creates the connection directly from driver/transceiver into the cable with a permanent method that is to say without any detachable connectors. In this way, it is easy, for example, to tune comparator reference input and cable loads equal to each other.
  • the cable assembly manufacturer controls im- pedance of the cable, thus matching of the transceiver's input and output impedance to the cable impedance is an easy task.
  • Semiconductor technology in the bidirectional transceiver is possible to have better high-speed performance and smaller manufacturing tolerances than are possible in typical ICs used in mobile terminals. Higher bit rates and better impedance accuracy is possible to reach that with typical mobile terminal ICs.
  • a first application of the here proposed new cable connection configuration could be extension of the MIPI Unified Protocol interface outside a mobile terminal to get connection to, for instance, multimedia display/camera unit in a "head set", for example.
  • Unified Protocol, or UniPro for short, for the D-PHY is aimed at linking a wide variety of peripherals that require high bandwidth, including TV receivers and Wi-Fi devices.
  • UniPro may act as a single protocol covering cameras, displays and other systems, but it is still in development.
  • USB Universal Synchronous Bus
  • Another example for an application could be extension of Universal Synchronous Bus (USB) interface to new generation making simultaneous bidirectional signaling as an additional option (which could support also 480 Mbps high-speed mode), making doubling of bandwidth possible without increasing bit rate.
  • USB bandwidth With a high-quality well-matched cable according to the invention, increasing of USB bandwidth would also be possible.
  • the distance from the cable-connection to the transmitter-receiver (transceiver) logic can be made so short that in some cases even sin- gle-ended signaling would be possible.
  • one major advantage is possibility of elimination of half of the signal wires from wire-conducted interconnections comprising interconnecting cables.
  • Ad- ditional advantage is possibility to use very small signal amplitude and very high bit rates.
  • the invention provides a new approach for controllable interconnections) in typical mobile device.
  • Most probable use case and applications are, for instance, having one single coaxial cable through a mechanical moveable connection, such as a hinge, between at least two parts of a electronic device, where in case of a mobile phone connecting MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance) protocols through such link is possible.
  • MIPI Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance
  • MIPI serial interfaces using M-PHY physical layer
  • Fig. 1 illustrates the basic principle of simultaneous bidirectional signaling infrastructure
  • Fig. 2 illustrates echo-cancellation in the connection of Fig. 1 ;
  • Fig. 3 shows an active bidirectional cable connection according to the invention
  • Figs. 4a, 4b shows an embodiment of the application of a cable connection according to the invention in a mobile terminal device
  • Fig. 5 shows a first embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit in flip chip arrangement
  • Fig. 6 shows a second embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit in flip chip arrangement
  • Fig. 7 shows a third embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit
  • Fig. 8 shows a forth embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of a packed integrated cable module circuit.
  • Fig. 3 shows a schematic block diagram of the active bidirectional cable connection according to the proposed configuration principle of the present invention.
  • the wire conducted data connection 300 is comprised of two coaxial cables 301 , 302 as a differential wire pair.
  • the coaxial cables 301 , 302 are directly and permanent connected to respective cable modules 310, 320.
  • the respective cable modules 310, 320 at each end of the wire conducted data connection 300 comprise at least the required circuit 311 , 321 for transmitting and sending data over the differential wire pair formed by the two coaxial cables 301 , 302.
  • the cable modules 310, 320 comprise respective signal driver 313, 323 for supplying a signal to be sent to the other end of the wire conducted data connection 300.
  • the cable mod- ules 310, 320 comprise respective receiving comparators 315, 325, which are adapted for detecting a signal, send via the wire conducted data connection 300 from the cable module at the other end.
  • the combination of the respective signal drivers 313, 323 and receiving compactors 315, 325 form respective transceiver units integrated in the respective cable modules 310, 320.
  • connection means 317, 327 to the circuit of the units and B, respectively.
  • connection means 317, 327 conventional intercon- nection methods and designs as known from surface mounted electronic components as well as packed integrated circuits can be applied. In these cases, the herein proposed cable connection may be mounted on the respective PCB parts of the electronic device to be interconnected.
  • connection means 317, 327 it is also possible have connectors as connection means 317, 327. That case is depicted in Fig. 3 by reference signs 318 and 319 for cable module 310 as well as by reference signs 328 and 329 for cable module 320, where reference signs 318, 319 and 328, 329 represent respective miniaturized connector pairs, which are available in different types.
  • one central aspect of the herein proposed cable interconnection is the fact to electrically and mechanically connect the respective used wire or cable type directly and permanent to the respective integrated circuit cable of the respective module 310, 320.
  • the inner conductor wire and the outer conductor can be bonded to respective connection pads provided at the integrated circuit of the respective cable modules, which serve as some kind of integrated interface in/to the cable interconnection.
  • FIG. 4a is an illustration of a mobile terminal or mobile phone 400 (or mo- bile for short), which is comprised of two parts 410, 420.
  • a mobile terminal or mobile phone 400 or mo- bile for short
  • reference sign 405 pointing to an arrow, which indicates the length of the phone, which may be in closed conduction about 7 cm. This indication will be helpful for understanding the required cable length of cable connection 450 discussed below in connection with Fig. 4b.
  • the upper part 420 containing besides a small number of keys 412 a display 414 and the lower part 420 containing a keypad 422 with several conventional keys typically known in the area of phones.
  • the two parts 410, 420 are mechanically connected together by means of a sliding mechanism, such phones are therefore also known as "slider phones".
  • the mechanical aspects of the connection will not be focused here in more details since the present invention is directed on the required high-speed bidirectional data interconnection between the electronics sitting in the two parts 410, 420 of the phone 400.
  • up to now in phones having two or more parts or components which are arranged moveable to each other require a huge number of lanes in the electrical interconnection(s), which suffer besides the discussed electronic aspects also from the high mechanical stresses during life time of the phone.
  • a data connection between two parts 410, 420 of the mobile device shown in Fig. 4a connects respective printed circuit boards (PCB), modules 410*, 420 * with electronic circuit which are in each respective part of the mobile phone.
  • the electronic circuit and components on the modules 410* and 420* may comprise a multi-point bus, comprising portions 431 , 432 to which respective functional components 441 , 442 are physically connected together by respective signal wires.
  • a cable connection 450 which is comprised of a single coaxial cable 451 and which provides for simultaneous bidirectional signaling.
  • the electronic interconnection provides for a reliable electronic interface between two func- tional parts of the phone, the modules 410*, 420*. Due to its robust configuration, the cable connection is able to withstand the mechanical stress in use during the expected/desired lifetime of the product.
  • the cable connection provides an active high-speed bidirectional interconnection for data exchange between the modules 410* and 420*.
  • a respective cable module 452, 454 (each of which comprises the respective integrated cable module circuit) located to which the coaxial cable 451 is directly and permanent connected, according to the principle of the invention.
  • the cable manufacturer preferably manufactures the cable connection 450 as a unit. That is to say, the coaxial cable is assembled together with the cable modules 452, 454 at each end.
  • the cable assembly may be made from a single coaxial cable. If the outer conductor of the coaxial cable is made thick enough, enough shielding for a single-ended signal transmission can be provided. Further, by the cable assembly forming a solid structure, the coaxial cable outer conductor can be connected to transceiver ground in the cable modules 4521 , 454, in a way which provides for low inductance (low transfer impedance) such that single-ended signaling in the range of Gb/s rates are possible.
  • such a single coaxial cable is able to replace an optical fiber connection, which, for example, is right now planned to be in mobile devices.
  • the single-cable signaling requires that the M-PHY, which is right now under specification in MIPI, will be ready.
  • the same bit rates are possible in the well-controlled interconnection herein proposed and disclosed.
  • normal low-speed CMOS signaling is much easier and more power efficient with respect to an electrical signal than with optics.
  • a single coaxial cable is also flexible enough to tolerate rotation and bending.
  • the use case could also be an external cable connection, such as a connection between a mobile device and a "headset" with, for example, near-eye display.
  • a coaxial cable 500 is used for the cable a coaxial cable 500.
  • the coaxial cable 500 comprises an inner conductor 502, which is used as the signal wire 503, and an outer conductor 504, which is mainly used for shielding proposes.
  • the coaxial cable 500 is fixed to a printed circuit board (PCB) 510, which may be the circuit board to which the cable connection is to be established.
  • PCB 510 there is at least one through- hole 512, to which the coaxial cable 500 is fixed.
  • the fixation is implemented by soldering the outer conductor 504 to conductor material of the PCB 510 at the through-hole 512, the diameter of which is indicated by the arrow 514 and corresponds substantially to the outer diameter of the cable 500. Accordingly, by this configuration the outer conductor 504 can be connected to ground potential of the circuit on the PCB 510.
  • the direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 503 to a re- spective contact of a cable module circuit 520 which is in this embodiment arranged in a flip chip arrangement.
  • the signal wire 503 of the cable 500 is directly connected to the respective contact of the integrated cable module circuit 520 by means of a signal bump 522.
  • a ground contact of the integrated cable module device 520 is connected via a respective ground bump 524 to a ground conductor 514 of the PCB 510, which is also connected with outer conductor 504 of the cable 500.
  • the whole arrangement may finally be covered by a molded resin, an epoxy, or suitable plastic material, in order to provide for protection and additional support; in Fig. 5 such a shielding is not illustrated.
  • FIG. 6 in which a second embodiment for the direct and per- manent cable connection is illustrated, in which again for the cable a coaxial cable
  • the coaxial cable 600 comprises the inner conductor 602 used as the signal wire 603 and the outer conductor 604, which is mainly used for shielding proposes.
  • the coaxial cable 600 is fixed on top of a printed circuit board
  • PCB PCB 610
  • PCB circuit board
  • the integrated cable module circuit 620 is substantially similar to the one described with Fig. 5.
  • the chip or die with the integrated cable module circuit is arranged in a flip chip configuration and the required electrical contacts are again provided by respective bumps, which is a signal bump 622 for connection with the signal wire 603 and a ground bump 624 for supply of a ground potential to the cable module IC.
  • the direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 603 and the signal bump 622 can be established at the same time, when the integrated cable module circuit 620 (cable module IC) is surface mounted in its turned over orientation on the PCB 610.
  • a direct and permanent connection between the signal wire 603 and the respective input and/or output of the integrated cable module circuit 620 is achieved which provides for the properties required for good signal transmission.
  • the whole arrangement is protected by a cover 630 of molded resin or an epoxy material for shielding and protection of the connections as well as for additional fixation of the cable 600.
  • a third embodiment for the direct and permanent cable connection is illustrated; again for the cable a coaxial cable 700 is used.
  • the cable being a coaxial cable 700 the inner conductor 702 (signal wire 730) and the outer conductor 704 is attached/fixed to the printed circuit board (PCB) 710.
  • PCB printed circuit board
  • the chip or die with integrated cable module circuit 720 is placed in a conventional manner that is with the contacts in upside orientation with respect to the upper side of the PCB 720.
  • a contact pad 740 On the PCB 710, between the chip with the integrated cable module circuit 720 and the coaxial cable 700 is located a contact pad 740, to which the signal wire 703 of the coaxial cable 700 is connected for instance by soldering or ultrasonic or laser bonding.
  • the direct and permanent connection between the signal wire 703 and a contact pad 741 at the integrated cable module circuit 720 is established by a bonding wire 742.
  • the whole arrangement is protected by a cover 730 of molded resin or an epoxy material for shielding and protection of the connections as well as for additional fixation of the cable 700.
  • the coaxial cable 800 comprises an inner conductor 802, which is used as the signal wire 803, and an outer conductor 804 shielding the signal wire 803.
  • the coaxial cable 800 is attached/fixed to a printed circuit board (PCB) 810, on which a SOIC packed cable module circuit 820 is mounted in a through-hole mounting manner.
  • PCB printed circuit board
  • a through-hole 812 for the pin to which the signal wire 803 of the coaxial cable 800 is to be directly and permanent connected.
  • a trough-hole 814 for the ground contact pin 824 of the SOIC packed cable module circuit 820.
  • a further fixation of the cable 800 is made by soldering of the outer conductor 804 to a respective conductor material of the PCB 810. Accordingly, the outer conductor 804 may be connected to ground potential of the circuit on the PCB 810 for better shielding.
  • the direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 803 to a respective contact of a SOIC packed cable module circuit 820 which is in this embodiment packed into a small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) packaging.
  • the signal wire 803 of the cable 800 is directly and permanent connected to the respective contact of the SOIC cable module 820 by means of a signal contact pin 822.
  • At least the interconnection of the signal wire 803 to the SOIC cable module 820 may finally be covered by a molded resin, an epoxy, or suitable plastic material, in order to provide for protection and additional support.
  • the cable 800 is attached or fixed to the opposite side of the PCB 810.
  • the con- nection of the at least one signal wire 803 can be established on the cable side of the PCB 810.
  • the respective signal wire of the cable 800 can be (slightly similar to Fig. 5) inserted into the respective through-hole of the PCB 810, where it is connected by soldering or any other suitable method or process to the respective pin of the packed integrated cable module circuit 820.
  • a further alternative for the direct and permanent connection of at least the signal wire of the cable 800 in/into the cable module circuit fabricated on a silicon chip/die will be described.
  • the integrated cable module circuit is packed in a "conventional" IC packaging, such as a SOJ or SOIC packaging.
  • the chip with the integrated cable module circuit can be arranged in an up side orientation within a lead frame, which provides required contact pads for interconnection. That is to say, the module circuit is interconnected with the lead frame pads for example by bonding wires.
  • This situation corresponds roughly the situation illustrated in Fig. 7, where the contact pad 740 would be located on the mentioned lead frame.
  • the signal wire is connected to a respective contact pad of the lead frame by a suitable permanent method such as ultrasonic or laser bonding.
  • a suitable material for IC packaging such as plastics or other moldable material.
  • This cable connection unit needs merely to be mounted to the respective printed circuit boards of an electronic device by the respective device manufacturer. Compared the embodiment of Fig. 8, by this ap- proach the distance of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire in/into the integrated cable module circuit is further reduced.
  • transceivers directly connected to coaxial cable inside the connector, the discussed problems that have made simultaneous bidirectional signaling impossible, for example up to now inside a mobile terminal, are solved.
  • the best implementation is such where transceiver capacitance (in the cable modules) is minimized, and matching of transceiver impedance to cable impedance is as good as possible.
  • a high-quality coaxial cable (or a pair of coaxial cables if differential signaling should be used) is used in order to keep external interference small enough and impedance tolerance accurate to make accurate impedance matching of transceiver to cable possible.
  • a good-quality coaxial cable has thick enough outer conductor that attenuate ESD pulses so much that only a limited ESD protection on transceiver side is needed. By implementation of only limited ESD protection (which is necessary during manufacturing) on the transceivers capacitive load at the transceiver can further be reduced.
  • high-quality or “good-quality” quality coaxial cable is meant that the used cable provides tight impedance tolerances, for example 2 % to 5 %, low dielectric losses, for example loss tangent (synonym for dissipation factor) of at least 0.002.
  • the thick outer connector for shielding may be composed of a metal foil and braided mesh wire instead of very thin moralized polyethylene foil.
  • the transceivers are made using modern semiconductor technology and manufacturing processes, which make accurate tolerances possible. As modern semiconductor technology here at least 65 nm CMOS or even 45 nm CMOS technology is meant and used. Alternatively, resonance tunnel diode (RTD) technology can be applied, which is able for signal speeds up to 80 Gb/s. Roughly speaking, technology should be "high-speed" technology.
  • RTD resonance tunnel diode
  • signal wires of the coaxial cable(s) is/are connected directly to silicon (chip/die) of the transceiver circuits such that package and connector impedance discontinuations are further avoided. As a result, the connection between cable conductors and the integrated cable module circuit part forms a sealed single component.
  • the output capacitance may be reduced, for example, by using NMOS pull-up and pull-down tran- sistors as driving elements instead of PMOS pull-up transistor. Also resistive pull-up and NMOS pull-down provides for small output capacitance.
  • the serial link comprises an embedded clocking.
  • An example for an application of this kind of link may be MIPI's M-PHY, which is under standardization.
  • MIPI's M-PHY MIPI's M-PHY
  • an optical fiber connection for example, through the hinge connecting two parts of the phone, may be used.
  • the bidirectional 1-cable solution of the invention can be applied in order to enable further miniaturization of connection mechanics such as hinges between the moving parts of the electronic devices. Furthermore, use of the bidirectional 1-cable solution could also cover cases where number of signal wires should be reduced or should be small.
  • the present invention has disclosed a cable connection with at least one cable as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cable module circuits connected to respective ends of the cable connection.
  • Conductors of the cable are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end to the respective contacts at the respective cable module circuit.
  • the cable module circuits are arranged for sending and/or receiving of a wire-conducted signal transmitted via the cable connection.
  • the cable module circuits can be matched to the respective cable impedance with high accuracy.
  • the connection is well protected from all kind of disturbance. As a result, very high simultaneous bidirectional bit rates are possible by this kind of interconnection between electronic units or modules.
  • the present invention is not restricted to the embodiment de- scribed above, but can be implemented in any circuit where at least two functional portions of circuit which require a high-speed data connection are to be connected by means of a wire conducted interconnection.
  • the here proposed cable connection design is a most cost-effective solution to all those mobile devices where signals need to go through some flexible mechanical structure like hinge, in other words practically all modern mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, personal digital assistants or alike.

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Abstract

A cable connection with at least one cable as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cables module circuits connected to respective ends of the cable connection. Conductors of the cable are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end to the respective contacts at the respective cable module circuit. The cable module circuits are arranged for sending and/or receiving of a wire-conducted signal transmitted via the cable connection. During fabrication of the integrated cable module the cable module circuits can be matched to the respective cable impedance with high accuracy. Further, by connecting the cable permanent and directly to transceiver circuits at each end of the cable, the connection is well protected from all kind of disturbance. As a result, very high simultaneous bidirectional bit rates are possible by this kind of interconnection between electronic units or modules.

Description

Simultaneous bidirectional cable interface
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an integrated cable module circuit, a cable connec- tion for simultaneous bidirectional signaling comprising the integrated cable module circuit, the use of such integrated cable module circuit and of such cable connection and a method of manufacture for the integrated cable module circuit as well as the cable connection.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Serial high-speed interfaces use typically one differential wire pair or one optical fiber, also called one lane, per direction. For instance, two pairs are used for bidirectional transmission, in data transmission as, for instance, in serial ATA (advanced technology attachment) and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) Express (PCIe), which uses existing PCI programming concepts, but on a completely differ- ent and much faster serial physical-layer communications protocol.
In PCIe, at the electrical level, each lane utilizes two unidirectional low voltage differential signaling pairs at 2.5 Gb/s. Transmit and receive are separate differential pairs, for a total of 4 data wires per lane. As with all high-speed serial transmission protocols, clocking information must be embedded in the signal. At the physical level, PCIe utilizes the very common 8B/10B encoding scheme to ensure that strings of consecutive ones or consecutive zeros are limited in length, so that the receiver does not lose track of where the bit edges are. This coding scheme replaces 8 uncoded (payload) bits of data with 10 (encoded) bits of transmitted data, consuming 20% of the overall electrical bandwidth.
Alternatively, one lane may be used for both directions, by using of the lane with a time division access (time-shared) scheme, where given (or negotiated) time slots are used for transmission from end A to end B or vice versa, respectively, which is used in Universal serial Bus (USB), for example.
Even simultaneous bidirectional transmission is a very old method in telecommuni- cation; one problem in conventional systems is formed by the signal reflected back to the transmitting unit. There is no method for eliminating this reflected part without undue efforts as besides other very complicated calibration to every cable length and transceiver return loss behavior.
The basic principle of simultaneous bidirectional signaling is illustrated in Fig. 1. If unit A sends a pulse via cable 10 to unit B, part of the pulse reflects back to unit A from impedance discontinuities in connectors 21 , 22, and impedance mismatch of the intended receiver 32 (and/or electro static discharge (ESD) suppression components (not shown)) at unit B. This results in only low bit rate signaling in simultaneous bidirectional links having connectors, as it is the case in all of the above- discussed applications.
Examples for and further information on high-speed links can be found, for instance, in "A 2.4 Gb/s/pin Simultaneous Bidirectional Parallel Link with Per-Pin Skew Compensation", Evelina Yeung, Student Member, IEEE, and Mark A. Horowitz, Fellow, IEEE, IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 35, NO. 11 , NOVEMBER 2000, pp. 1619 and "Architecture and Design of a Simultaneously Bidirectional Single-ended High Speed Chip-to-Chip Interface", Robert Drost, SMLI TR- 2002-107 February 2002.
Accordingly, one method to handle unwanted reflected signals on data connections is echo-cancellation. In Fig. 1 , the signal driver 41 of unit A sends a pulse into the cable 10, but at the same time the same pulse is supplied to reference input pins of receiving comparator 31 by means of replica driver 51. The effect of the supplied pulse from the replica driver 51 to the receiving comparator 31 is illustrated for a single-ended signaling in Fig. 2 (left part of the Fig.).
In Fig. 2, by the signal from replica driver 51 the detecting level of the receiving comparator 31 is changed with an equal amount as the (send) pulse changes the signal at the output of signal driver 41. In this way, in principle, the receiving comparator 31 will not "see" the pulse sent by the signal driver 41 located at the same end of the cable 10. One remaining problem in such typical echo-cancellation system is matching of load coming from the cable 10 having connectors to the load seen by the replica driver 51. In particular, if the loads are not equal, the reference level of the receiving comparator 31 does not match to the signal sent into cable 10. Consequently, the difference (signal) is seen as signal by the receiving comparator 31 and thus is mixed with the intended signal sent from the opposite end of the cable, for example the unit B in Fig. 1.
Another even more difficult problem is formed by the signal reflected back from the other end of the cable from impedance discontinuities caused by, for instance, ESD protection circuits, connector capacitances and/or inductances. This reflected part was found as a serious problem, for example, in microwave link systems using simultaneous bidirectional signaling. Up to now, there is no known method to eliminate this problem, but interconnection must be made so good that reflections can't reach the driver.
As mentioned above, if the transmitter and receiver shall support simultaneous bidirectional signaling, one lane is enough for high bandwidth low-latency transmission. If the required bandwidth is so large that a time-shared lane is not able to meet bandwidth and latency requirements, the number of required lanes (one differential wire pair or one optical fiber) is to be doubled in an interconnection cable. However, many protocols require low latency acknowledge signal back, which makes timesharing of a common lane impossible.
SUMMARY
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a solution for the above- discussed problems. In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cable connection and a method of manufacture thereof, which enables a high-speed serial simultaneous bidirectional signaling connection.
The above object is achieved by a cable connection comprising at least one cable as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cable module circuits connected to conductors of the cable at respective ends of the cable, wherein at least signal wires of the conductors of the cable are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end of the cable with respective contacts of the respective cable module circuit, wherein the cable module circuits are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable connection.
Further, the above object is achieved by use of such a cable connection inside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the electronic device, wherein the parts of the hous- - A -
ing of the electronic device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the electronic device may be moved with respect to each other, and wherein the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
Moreover, the above object is achieved by a integrated circuit comprising contacts for interconnection of the integrated circuit, which is a cable module circuit arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection; wherein the cable module circuit is adapted to be connected to a cable for a wire conducted signal interconnection via the cable with another cable module circuit connected to conductors of the cable at the other end of the cable; wherein at least signal wires of the conductors of the cable are to be directly and permanent electrical connected to the cable module circuit.
Further, the above object is achieved by a method of manufacture comprising cutting a cable to a required predetermined length; fabricating integrated cable module circuits which are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable; and connecting directly with a permanent method conductors of the cable at each cable end with respective contacts of the respective integrated cable module circuits; wherein in fabricating of the integrated cable module circuits input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuits connected to conductors of the cable are matched to the respective cable impedance.
Furthermore, the above object is achieved by a method of manufacture comprising fabricating an integrated cable module circuit, which is arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection, wherein at least respective input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuit are matched to a cable impedance which is predetermined by a cable to be connected to the integrated cable module circuit.
As it regards the aspect of having conductors of the cable connected into the integrated cable module circuit (or cable module integrated circuit (IC)), herein "directly" means, for example, that at least the signal wires of the conductors of the cable connection are directly bonded by a suitable method or process, for instance, such as ultrasonic or laser bonding to bonding pads at the cable module IC. In case of very thin signal wires, a separate support board may be used for the signal wire(s), which can, for instance, be connected or bonded, respectively, by gold or aluminum wire bonding from the support board to respective bonding pad(s) of the cable module IC. Further, "directly" may also include cases where the signal wire of the cable connection is connected to a contact, such as a contact pad, of a printed wiring board (PCB), which may be a separate small PCB, from where the electrical or signal connection is made with the cable module IC, for which, for example, traditional or flip chip (FC) IC packaging can be used. Furthermore, as support board may be, for example, also be understood a lead frame of a conventional IC packaging to which the cable module IC is interconnected, where contact pads of the lead frame are used for connection to the at least signal wires of the cable connection.
One aspect is the kind or type of cable for the cable connection, which may be comprised of a shielded pair cable, which, thus, may be used for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling. Alternatively, the cable connection may be made of a coaxial cable. In that case, also a pair of coaxial cables can be used, which allows for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling.
Another aspect is the cable module circuit, each of which in one embodiment comprises sending and receiving means for sending and receiving a wire-conducted signal via the respective cable connection, such as a transmitter-receiver unit or transceiver unit for short.
Each of the cable module circuits can be precisely adapted to respective electrical properties of the cable, such as the impedance and/or used cable length. Accordingly, by matching of input and output impedances of the cable module circuits, which are connected to conductors of the cable, to the respective cable impedance reflections of a signal conducted via the cable connection are reduced. Impedance matching is made to the cable module circuits, such as the afore-mentioned transceiver units, as a whole including potentially used mechanical connection components like printed wiring boards and integrated circuit (IC) packages. By the configuration of the invention the transceivers units of the cable module circuit can be designed to provide multi-gigabit bidirectional data transmission via the cable connec- tion.
In a further development, when the cable comprises an outer conductor, the outer conductor may be connected to a ground potential of the cable module circuit at least at one end of the cable. Additionally or alternatively, when the cable may be provided with an outer conductor having a predetermined thickness, which may be adapted such that electronic discharge pulses of a certain energy level are attenuated such that dedicated electronic discharge protection (ESD) circuit can be limited or even omitted at the cable module circuit. The cable outer conductor properties are described by a term known as "surface transfer impedance". In short, "surface transfer impedance" is the voltage drop on the inside of the shield divided by an electrical current flowing on the external surface of the cable. In typical coaxial cables, the surface transfer impedance is about 1 mΩ (milliohm) to tens of milliohms. Accordingly, with about 1 mΩ surface transfer impedance a ESD signal in the range of 10 kV could be attenuated to about 1/1000 thereof, that is about 10 V that would be tolerable by normal integrated circuits having about 2 kV ESD tolerance, which is required for manufacturability thereof.
In a certain embodiment, the cable module circuits are implemented as integrated cable module circuits. Then, at least one of the contacts (or contact means) at the integrated cable module circuit can be a contact pad for a bonding interconnection.
Alternatively or additionally, at least one of the contacts (or contact means) at the integrated cable module circuit may be at least one of a direct bump on a contact pad, a bump on a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a bump on a thick repas- sivation or redistribution pad. Accordingly, at least the signal wires of the cable can then be directly and permanent electrically connected to some of these contacts.
In a further development, at least one cable of the cable connection is fixed to a support board, which can be a separate support board with respect to the cable module circuit or with respect to the circuit board to which the cable module circuit is mounted. The support board may also be the circuit board on which the cable module circuit is mounted. Also (as mentioned above) a lead frame to which the integrated cable module circuit is interconnected may be understood as a support board in this context. At the support board at least the signal wire of the cable is then directly and permanent (inter)connected from the support board to a respective con- tact (or contact means) of the integrated cable module circuit. This connection may comprise a bonding wire or any other suitable electrical connection means. Additionally, the cable module and the direct and permanent interconnection to the cable can at least at one end of the cable be sealed and/or protected by cover means or a cover made by or of suitable molded material or hardened material, such as a epoxy shielding, a molded resin or alike.
Alternatively or additionally, the respective cable module circuit may be packed at least at one end of the cable connection into a circuit package, which then com- prises connection means for connection of the cable module to a circuit board. In this case, the contacts or connection means can be at least one of a connection pin, a connection bump, a connection ball or a combination thereof for a permanent mounting of the packed integrated circuit to a circuit board.
The packaging can be arranged for surface mounting (SMT) mounting or for through hole mounting processes. Again, at least one signal wire of the cable connection may then be directly and permanent connected to the cable module circuit via a printed wiring board having respective electrical connections to the contacts of the packed integrated cable module circuit.
As it regards the packaging of the integrated cable module circuits, one option is small outline IC (SOIC) package, also known as SOJ. The SOIC packages enable SMT performance characteristics such that their use fits easily to all SMT processes and lines. Alternatively or additionally, the integrated cable modules circuits may be arranged in its packaging or even unpacked arranged in a so-called flip chip (FC) arrangement, which is not a specific package like the mentioned SOIC. Flip chip arrangement means the orientation of electrically connecting the chip with the integrated cable module circuit to the package carrier or the contacts or contact means.
In cases where a package carrier is used, which can be either substrate or a lead frame, the carrier provides for the connection from the chip to the exterior of the package. In conventional packaging, the interconnection between the chip and the package carrier is made using bond wires. The chip is attached to the carrier face up, and then a wire is bonded first to the chip, then looped and bonded to the carrier. Wires are typically 1-5 mm in length, and 25-35 μm in diameter.
In contrast, the interconnection between the chip and carrier in flip chip arrangement, interconnection is made through conductive contact balls, so-called bumps, that are placed directly on the chip surface to contacts of the integrated circuits, which may be the above-mentioned implementation as bump on a contact pad, bump on a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a bump on a thick repassivation or redistribution pad. The bumped chip can then flipped over and placed or mounted in a face down arrangement, namely the flip chip arrangement, with the bumps connecting to the carrier or the circuit board directly. A bump is typically 70-100 μm high, and 100-125 μm in diameter. The FC connection may generally be formed in using solder or using conductive adhesive.
Application of the FC arrangement for the integrated cable module circuits provides for reduced signal inductance due to the interconnect being shorter in length. Hence, the inductance of the signal path can be reduced, which improves signal quality in high-speed communication. Further, also power/ground inductance(s) may be reduced. By using FC arrangement interconnects to power and ground potential can be brought directly into the core of the chip, rather than having to be routed to edges of a carrier thereof. This results in a further decrease of noise of the core power, which improves performance of the silicon. Furthermore, the entire surface of the chip can be used for interconnection, which provides for higher signal density. Moreover, the size of the chip can be reduced since chip size is no longer determined by the edge space required for bonding pads, by which silicon can be save but also a smaller integrated cable modules can be achieved.
In a further development, the connection means are a connector adapted for connecting the packed integrated cable module circuit to a corresponding connector port located at a circuit board.
In all cases, the connection means to the cable module circuits comprise connection contacts for data input and output to the cable module and power supply contacts for providing electrical power to the cable module circuit.
In one application, the cable connection is used for a simultaneous bidirectional sig- naling interconnection between a mobile electronic device and a periphery device thereof. In a certain application, the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone and the periphery device is a headset with a display, a camera module or a combination thereof. However, it is worth noting that basically the disclosed simultaneous bidirectional signaling interconnection may be used for interconnection between any kinds of electronic devices or modules.
In another certain application the mobile electronic device is a portable computer device, such as a laptop or a personal digital assistant, and the cable connection is used for a simultaneous bidirectional signaling interconnection between a graphic display and a respective display of the portable computer device.
In cases, where the cable connection is used inside an electronic device, the electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device may be located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device, wherein the parts of the housing of the mobile device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device may be moved with respect to each other, and the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection for interconnecting the electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device may be located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device. For instance, when the mobile electronic device is a mobile or portable computer, the cable connection can connect the main board of the computer to a display of the computer, which display is usually attached to the mobile device by means of a hinge or sliding mechanics or other suitable mechanical movable (rotatable, rockable, pivotable, turnable or any combination thereof) connection.
In one preferred application, the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone. The cable connection may then be an interconnection for Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance M-PHY protocol. Preferably, each of the cable module circuit comprises multi-gigabit bidirectional transceivers.
As it regards the method of manufacture, the method may further comprise packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a package to form a cable connector module at each end of the cable. It is worth noting that the cable connection can be manufactured as an entity by one manufacturing line or process. However, as long as the principles herein disclosed are considered, it is also possible to have the in- tegrated cable module circuits made by a certain manufacturer and the required cable to be used in a certain application is provided by a cable manufacturer. It goes without saying that according to the basic idea, at least the length of the cable to be used, which length normally is indicated by the intended application, has impact on electrical characteristics of the cable, such as cable impedance, to which the inte- grated cable module circuits are to be adapted. The method may alternatively further comprise packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a housing having a connector for attaching the cable module to a respective port connector at a circuit board.
During manufacture of the cable connection, signal wires of the cable connection may be direct bonded to contact pads of the integrated cable module circuits. In one embodiment of the method, the integrated cable module circuits arranging in a flip chip arrangement; and contacts of the integrated cable module circuits are provided with contactable bumps or pins. Then, the conductors of the cable at each cable end can be connected to the respective contactable bumps or pins.
In a certain embodiment of the method, the cable is fixed in a through hole of a printed circuit board; and at least the signal wire of the conductors of the cable are connected at the other side of the printed circuit board to the respective contactable bumps or pins of the respective integrated cable module circuit.
Basically, the cable connection can be used inside or outside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device. Parts of the housing of the mobile device may be mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device can be moved with respect to each other. The cable connection can be used running through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
To sum it up, the general idea is based on the perception that by arranging a highspeed, such as a multi-gigabit, bidirectional transceiver circuit inside a cable connector module to which the cable for the connection is directly connected, additional loads, for example caused by ESD suppression components, can be eliminated from the cable connecting modules/units. In this way, required impedance matching can be designed to be good enough to prevent too large part of the signal transmitted via the cable connection from reflecting back into the original source of the signal, such as pulse(s).
Further, by connecting the cable permanent and as directly as possible to/into respective integrated transceiver circuits, the connection can well protected from all kind of disturbance, such as, for example, human touch or over-voltages. Thus, additional loads from ESD-protection, which would generate reflections, are not re- quired. As a result, very high simultaneous bidirectional bit rates can be achieved by this kind of "clean" interconnection between electronic units or modules.
As it regards manufacture of the cable connection of the invention, the provided method makes the connection from the driver circuit into the cable easily controlla- ble. In other words, the cable assembly manufacturer creates the connection directly from driver/transceiver into the cable with a permanent method that is to say without any detachable connectors. In this way, it is easy, for example, to tune comparator reference input and cable loads equal to each other. Furthermore, because no additional components are required and the cable assembly manufacturer controls im- pedance of the cable, thus matching of the transceiver's input and output impedance to the cable impedance is an easy task. Semiconductor technology in the bidirectional transceiver is possible to have better high-speed performance and smaller manufacturing tolerances than are possible in typical ICs used in mobile terminals. Higher bit rates and better impedance accuracy is possible to reach that with typical mobile terminal ICs.
A first application of the here proposed new cable connection configuration could be extension of the MIPI Unified Protocol interface outside a mobile terminal to get connection to, for instance, multimedia display/camera unit in a "head set", for example. Unified Protocol, or UniPro for short, for the D-PHY is aimed at linking a wide variety of peripherals that require high bandwidth, including TV receivers and Wi-Fi devices. UniPro may act as a single protocol covering cameras, displays and other systems, but it is still in development.
Another example for an application could be extension of Universal Synchronous Bus (USB) interface to new generation making simultaneous bidirectional signaling as an additional option (which could support also 480 Mbps high-speed mode), making doubling of bandwidth possible without increasing bit rate. With a high-quality well-matched cable according to the invention, increasing of USB bandwidth would also be possible. Moreover, the distance from the cable-connection to the transmitter-receiver (transceiver) logic can be made so short that in some cases even sin- gle-ended signaling would be possible.
Accordingly, one major advantage is possibility of elimination of half of the signal wires from wire-conducted interconnections comprising interconnecting cables. Ad- ditional advantage is possibility to use very small signal amplitude and very high bit rates.
Finally, yet importantly, the invention provides a new approach for controllable interconnections) in typical mobile device. Most probable use case and applications are, for instance, having one single coaxial cable through a mechanical moveable connection, such as a hinge, between at least two parts of a electronic device, where in case of a mobile phone connecting MIPI (Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance) protocols through such link is possible. Accordingly, the problem of having 100 - 150 coaxial cables presently going through, for example, a hinge, when MIPI serial interfaces using M-PHY (physical layer) are implemented into, for instance, a mobile terminal, is solved.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other objects and features will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be under- stood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims only. It should be further understood that the drawings are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
Fig. 1 illustrates the basic principle of simultaneous bidirectional signaling infrastructure;
Fig. 2 illustrates echo-cancellation in the connection of Fig. 1 ;
Fig. 3 shows an active bidirectional cable connection according to the invention; Figs. 4a, 4b shows an embodiment of the application of a cable connection according to the invention in a mobile terminal device;
Fig. 5 shows a first embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit in flip chip arrangement; Fig. 6 shows a second embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit in flip chip arrangement;
Fig. 7 shows a third embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of an integrated cable module circuit; and Fig. 8 shows a forth embodiment of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire of the cable connection to a contact of a packed integrated cable module circuit.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT
Now reference is made to Fig. 3, which shows a schematic block diagram of the active bidirectional cable connection according to the proposed configuration principle of the present invention. Basically, there is a circuit or a unit A and a circuit or a unit B, which are interconnected by means of a wire conducted data connection 300. The wire conducted data connection 300 is comprised of two coaxial cables 301 , 302 as a differential wire pair. At each end of the wire conducted data connection 300, the coaxial cables 301 , 302 are directly and permanent connected to respective cable modules 310, 320.
According to the basic idea of the invention, in the respective cable modules 310, 320 at each end of the wire conducted data connection 300 comprise at least the required circuit 311 , 321 for transmitting and sending data over the differential wire pair formed by the two coaxial cables 301 , 302. Accordingly, the cable modules 310, 320 comprise respective signal driver 313, 323 for supplying a signal to be sent to the other end of the wire conducted data connection 300. Further, the cable mod- ules 310, 320 comprise respective receiving comparators 315, 325, which are adapted for detecting a signal, send via the wire conducted data connection 300 from the cable module at the other end. The combination of the respective signal drivers 313, 323 and receiving compactors 315, 325 form respective transceiver units integrated in the respective cable modules 310, 320.
The cable modules 310, 320, to which the coaxial cables 301 , 302 are directly and permanent connected, have respective connection means 317, 327 to the circuit of the units and B, respectively. As connection means 317, 327 conventional intercon- nection methods and designs as known from surface mounted electronic components as well as packed integrated circuits can be applied. In these cases, the herein proposed cable connection may be mounted on the respective PCB parts of the electronic device to be interconnected.
According to one embodiment, it is also possible have connectors as connection means 317, 327. That case is depicted in Fig. 3 by reference signs 318 and 319 for cable module 310 as well as by reference signs 328 and 329 for cable module 320, where reference signs 318, 319 and 328, 329 represent respective miniaturized connector pairs, which are available in different types.
It is worth noting that one central aspect of the herein proposed cable interconnection is the fact to electrically and mechanically connect the respective used wire or cable type directly and permanent to the respective integrated circuit cable of the respective module 310, 320. For instance, the inner conductor wire and the outer conductor can be bonded to respective connection pads provided at the integrated circuit of the respective cable modules, which serve as some kind of integrated interface in/to the cable interconnection.
Now reference is made to Figs. 4a and 4b, in which a use case or an application for the herein presented wire conducted data connection or cable interconnection is illustrated. Fig. 4a is an illustration of a mobile terminal or mobile phone 400 (or mo- bile for short), which is comprised of two parts 410, 420. For a better imagination there is an indication of the phone's size by reference sign 405 pointing to an arrow, which indicates the length of the phone, which may be in closed conduction about 7 cm. This indication will be helpful for understanding the required cable length of cable connection 450 discussed below in connection with Fig. 4b. There is the upper part 420 containing besides a small number of keys 412 a display 414 and the lower part 420 containing a keypad 422 with several conventional keys typically known in the area of phones. The two parts 410, 420 are mechanically connected together by means of a sliding mechanism, such phones are therefore also known as "slider phones". The mechanical aspects of the connection will not be focused here in more details since the present invention is directed on the required high-speed bidirectional data interconnection between the electronics sitting in the two parts 410, 420 of the phone 400. As already mentioned above, up to now in phones having two or more parts or components which are arranged moveable to each other require a huge number of lanes in the electrical interconnection(s), which suffer besides the discussed electronic aspects also from the high mechanical stresses during life time of the phone.
Now with reference to Fig. 4b, a data connection between two parts 410, 420 of the mobile device shown in Fig. 4a connects respective printed circuit boards (PCB), modules 410*, 420* with electronic circuit which are in each respective part of the mobile phone. The electronic circuit and components on the modules 410* and 420* may comprise a multi-point bus, comprising portions 431 , 432 to which respective functional components 441 , 442 are physically connected together by respective signal wires. It is noted that, alternatively, instead of a multipoint bus on both modules 410*, 420*, it is also possible to have a UniPro network, where all connections would be point-to-point connections between respective nodes 433a, 433b, ..., 433h, 433i, which are illustrated as dotted circles in Fig. 4b. In case of such a UniPro network, there would by a switch-node at all interconnections, details of which are not essential for the present invention.
It goes without saying that detailed information on and description of the electronic parts and functional components of the mobile phone 400, which are merely sketched as examples in Fig. 4b, is not required herein. Further, it will be appreciated that the application of the cable interconnection in a mobile phone described herein is a general example of a preferred use, but not intended to restrict the invention or its application thereto.
In Fig. 4b there is a cable connection 450 which is comprised of a single coaxial cable 451 and which provides for simultaneous bidirectional signaling. The electronic interconnection provides for a reliable electronic interface between two func- tional parts of the phone, the modules 410*, 420*. Due to its robust configuration, the cable connection is able to withstand the mechanical stress in use during the expected/desired lifetime of the product.
Further, the cable connection provides an active high-speed bidirectional interconnection for data exchange between the modules 410* and 420*. On each PCB of the modules 410* and 420* is a respective cable module 452, 454 (each of which comprises the respective integrated cable module circuit) located to which the coaxial cable 451 is directly and permanent connected, according to the principle of the invention.
As discussed above, the cable manufacturer preferably manufactures the cable connection 450 as a unit. That is to say, the coaxial cable is assembled together with the cable modules 452, 454 at each end. For example, the cable assembly may be made from a single coaxial cable. If the outer conductor of the coaxial cable is made thick enough, enough shielding for a single-ended signal transmission can be provided. Further, by the cable assembly forming a solid structure, the coaxial cable outer conductor can be connected to transceiver ground in the cable modules 4521 , 454, in a way which provides for low inductance (low transfer impedance) such that single-ended signaling in the range of Gb/s rates are possible.
Accordingly, such a single coaxial cable is able to replace an optical fiber connection, which, for example, is right now planned to be in mobile devices. At the moment, the single-cable signaling requires that the M-PHY, which is right now under specification in MIPI, will be ready. Compared to optical signaling, the same bit rates are possible in the well-controlled interconnection herein proposed and disclosed. In addition, normal low-speed CMOS signaling is much easier and more power efficient with respect to an electrical signal than with optics. A single coaxial cable is also flexible enough to tolerate rotation and bending. In this context the use case could also be an external cable connection, such as a connection between a mobile device and a "headset" with, for example, near-eye display.
Now with reference to Fig. 5 to 8 several embodiments of the direct and permanent connection of at least one signal wire of the herein proposed cable connection to a respective cable module circuit will be described in more detail. It goes without say- ing, that the following discussion and description is not intended as limitation of the invention thereto as well as it is clear that any details and/or aspects of a certain implementation may be combined in further embodiments which are not shown or described herein, but covered by the appended claims.
In Fig. 5, an embodiment of the direct and permanent cable connection is illustrated, in which for the cable a coaxial cable 500 is used. The coaxial cable 500 comprises an inner conductor 502, which is used as the signal wire 503, and an outer conductor 504, which is mainly used for shielding proposes. The coaxial cable 500 is fixed to a printed circuit board (PCB) 510, which may be the circuit board to which the cable connection is to be established. In the PCB 510, there is at least one through- hole 512, to which the coaxial cable 500 is fixed. In the illustrated embodiment, the fixation is implemented by soldering the outer conductor 504 to conductor material of the PCB 510 at the through-hole 512, the diameter of which is indicated by the arrow 514 and corresponds substantially to the outer diameter of the cable 500. Accordingly, by this configuration the outer conductor 504 can be connected to ground potential of the circuit on the PCB 510.
As it regards, the direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 503 to a re- spective contact of a cable module circuit 520, which is in this embodiment arranged in a flip chip arrangement. In this way, the signal wire 503 of the cable 500 is directly connected to the respective contact of the integrated cable module circuit 520 by means of a signal bump 522. In the same way, a ground contact of the integrated cable module device 520 is connected via a respective ground bump 524 to a ground conductor 514 of the PCB 510, which is also connected with outer conductor 504 of the cable 500. The whole arrangement may finally be covered by a molded resin, an epoxy, or suitable plastic material, in order to provide for protection and additional support; in Fig. 5 such a shielding is not illustrated.
Now with reference to Fig. 6, in which a second embodiment for the direct and per- manent cable connection is illustrated, in which again for the cable a coaxial cable
600 is used. Accordingly, the coaxial cable 600 comprises the inner conductor 602 used as the signal wire 603 and the outer conductor 604, which is mainly used for shielding proposes. The coaxial cable 600 is fixed on top of a printed circuit board
(PCB) 610, which is, for example, one of the circuit boards of Fig. 4b, to which the cable connection is to be established.
The integrated cable module circuit 620 is substantially similar to the one described with Fig. 5. In other words, the chip or die with the integrated cable module circuit is arranged in a flip chip configuration and the required electrical contacts are again provided by respective bumps, which is a signal bump 622 for connection with the signal wire 603 and a ground bump 624 for supply of a ground potential to the cable module IC. The direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 603 and the signal bump 622 can be established at the same time, when the integrated cable module circuit 620 (cable module IC) is surface mounted in its turned over orientation on the PCB 610. Thus, a direct and permanent connection between the signal wire 603 and the respective input and/or output of the integrated cable module circuit 620 is achieved which provides for the properties required for good signal transmission. Finally, yet importantly, the whole arrangement is protected by a cover 630 of molded resin or an epoxy material for shielding and protection of the connections as well as for additional fixation of the cable 600.
Now with reference to Fig. 7, in which a third embodiment for the direct and permanent cable connection is illustrated; again for the cable a coaxial cable 700 is used. In the following, only the differences to the embodiments of Fig. 5 and 6 are de- scribed in detail for sake of brevity. The cable, being a coaxial cable 700 the inner conductor 702 (signal wire 730) and the outer conductor 704 is attached/fixed to the printed circuit board (PCB) 710. On the PCB 710 the chip or die with integrated cable module circuit 720 is placed in a conventional manner that is with the contacts in upside orientation with respect to the upper side of the PCB 720. On the PCB 710, between the chip with the integrated cable module circuit 720 and the coaxial cable 700 is located a contact pad 740, to which the signal wire 703 of the coaxial cable 700 is connected for instance by soldering or ultrasonic or laser bonding. The direct and permanent connection between the signal wire 703 and a contact pad 741 at the integrated cable module circuit 720 is established by a bonding wire 742. Finally, the whole arrangement is protected by a cover 730 of molded resin or an epoxy material for shielding and protection of the connections as well as for additional fixation of the cable 700.
Now with reference to Fig. 8, where an embodiment of the direct and permanent cable connection is illustrated, in which for the cable a coaxial cable 800 is used. The coaxial cable 800 comprises an inner conductor 802, which is used as the signal wire 803, and an outer conductor 804 shielding the signal wire 803. The coaxial cable 800 is attached/fixed to a printed circuit board (PCB) 810, on which a SOIC packed cable module circuit 820 is mounted in a through-hole mounting manner. In the PCB 810, there is at least the required number of through-holes, which corre- spond to the number of pins of the SOIC packed cable module circuit 820. In Fig. 8 there is a through-hole 812 for the pin to which the signal wire 803 of the coaxial cable 800 is to be directly and permanent connected. There is further a trough-hole 814 for the ground contact pin 824 of the SOIC packed cable module circuit 820. In the illustrated embodiment of Fig. 8, a further fixation of the cable 800 is made by soldering of the outer conductor 804 to a respective conductor material of the PCB 810. Accordingly, the outer conductor 804 may be connected to ground potential of the circuit on the PCB 810 for better shielding.
As it regards, the direct and permanent connection of the signal wire 803 to a respective contact of a SOIC packed cable module circuit 820, which is in this embodiment packed into a small outline integrated circuit (SOIC) packaging. Here, the signal wire 803 of the cable 800 is directly and permanent connected to the respective contact of the SOIC cable module 820 by means of a signal contact pin 822. At least the interconnection of the signal wire 803 to the SOIC cable module 820 may finally be covered by a molded resin, an epoxy, or suitable plastic material, in order to provide for protection and additional support.
In an alternative (not illustrated) embodiment of the embodiment of Fig. 8, the cable 800 is attached or fixed to the opposite side of the PCB 810. In this case the con- nection of the at least one signal wire 803 can be established on the cable side of the PCB 810. In a further development, the respective signal wire of the cable 800 can be (slightly similar to Fig. 5) inserted into the respective through-hole of the PCB 810, where it is connected by soldering or any other suitable method or process to the respective pin of the packed integrated cable module circuit 820.
With respect to Figs. 7 and 8, here a further alternative for the direct and permanent connection of at least the signal wire of the cable 800 in/into the cable module circuit fabricated on a silicon chip/die will be described. In Fig. 8 the integrated cable module circuit is packed in a "conventional" IC packaging, such as a SOJ or SOIC packaging. As described above the chip with the integrated cable module circuit can be arranged in an up side orientation within a lead frame, which provides required contact pads for interconnection. That is to say, the module circuit is interconnected with the lead frame pads for example by bonding wires. This situation corresponds roughly the situation illustrated in Fig. 7, where the contact pad 740 would be located on the mentioned lead frame. Accordingly, before the cable module IC is packed into for example a SOIC packaging, the signal wire is connected to a respective contact pad of the lead frame by a suitable permanent method such as ultrasonic or laser bonding. Finally, the whole arrangement of the (respective end portion of the) coaxial cable connected by its signal wire to the dedicated contact pad of the lead frame together with the respective integrated cable module circuit is packaged by a suitable material for IC packaging such as plastics or other moldable material. As a result, a closer and more direct connection of the signal wire in/into the cable module circuit is achieved. Moreover, the whole cable connection comes as one entity or cable connection unit, comprising two standardizable IC packages, for example SOIC packages, which are interconnected by the respectively used cable, such as a suitable coaxial cable. This cable connection unit needs merely to be mounted to the respective printed circuit boards of an electronic device by the respective device manufacturer. Compared the embodiment of Fig. 8, by this ap- proach the distance of the direct and permanent connection of a signal wire in/into the integrated cable module circuit is further reduced.
By the basic idea of the invention, having transceivers directly connected to coaxial cable inside the connector, the discussed problems that have made simultaneous bidirectional signaling impossible, for example up to now inside a mobile terminal, are solved. The best implementation is such where transceiver capacitance (in the cable modules) is minimized, and matching of transceiver impedance to cable impedance is as good as possible.
In the following, by way of example some additional information on how the cable connection or the integrated cable module circuits may be manufactured is provided. However, it is clear for the skilled in the art that the present invention is not to be understood as restricted thereto.
Firstly, as cable for the cable connection a high-quality coaxial cable (or a pair of coaxial cables if differential signaling should be used) is used in order to keep external interference small enough and impedance tolerance accurate to make accurate impedance matching of transceiver to cable possible. Further, a good-quality coaxial cable has thick enough outer conductor that attenuate ESD pulses so much that only a limited ESD protection on transceiver side is needed. By implementation of only limited ESD protection (which is necessary during manufacturing) on the transceivers capacitive load at the transceiver can further be reduced. By "high-quality" or "good-quality" quality coaxial cable is meant that the used cable provides tight impedance tolerances, for example 2 % to 5 %, low dielectric losses, for example loss tangent (synonym for dissipation factor) of at least 0.002. Further, the thick outer connector for shielding may be composed of a metal foil and braided mesh wire instead of very thin moralized polyethylene foil.
Further, the transceivers are made using modern semiconductor technology and manufacturing processes, which make accurate tolerances possible. As modern semiconductor technology here at least 65 nm CMOS or even 45 nm CMOS technology is meant and used. Alternatively, resonance tunnel diode (RTD) technology can be applied, which is able for signal speeds up to 80 Gb/s. Roughly speaking, technology should be "high-speed" technology. In some of the embodiments, signal wires of the coaxial cable(s) is/are connected directly to silicon (chip/die) of the transceiver circuits such that package and connector impedance discontinuations are further avoided. As a result, the connection between cable conductors and the integrated cable module circuit part forms a sealed single component.
As it regards the driver circuits of the integrated cable module circuit, the output capacitance may be reduced, for example, by using NMOS pull-up and pull-down tran- sistors as driving elements instead of PMOS pull-up transistor. Also resistive pull-up and NMOS pull-down provides for small output capacitance.
In another further development, the serial link comprises an embedded clocking. An example for an application of this kind of link may be MIPI's M-PHY, which is under standardization. However, it is clear that an implementation is most probable in those applications/products where instead of the present invention an optical fiber connection, for example, through the hinge connecting two parts of the phone, may be used.
Further, in electronic devices, which would use several wires/cables in an interconnection, the bidirectional 1-cable solution of the invention can be applied in order to enable further miniaturization of connection mechanics such as hinges between the moving parts of the electronic devices. Furthermore, use of the bidirectional 1-cable solution could also cover cases where number of signal wires should be reduced or should be small.
As summary, the present invention has disclosed a cable connection with at least one cable as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cable module circuits connected to respective ends of the cable connection. Conductors of the cable are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end to the respective contacts at the respective cable module circuit. The cable module circuits are arranged for sending and/or receiving of a wire-conducted signal transmitted via the cable connection. During fabrication of the integrated cable module the cable module circuits can be matched to the respective cable impedance with high accuracy. Further, by connecting the cable permanent and directly to transceiver circuits at each end of the cable, the connection is well protected from all kind of disturbance. As a result, very high simultaneous bidirectional bit rates are possible by this kind of interconnection between electronic units or modules.
It is to be noted that the present invention is not restricted to the embodiment de- scribed above, but can be implemented in any circuit where at least two functional portions of circuit which require a high-speed data connection are to be connected by means of a wire conducted interconnection. Altogether, the here proposed cable connection design is a most cost-effective solution to all those mobile devices where signals need to go through some flexible mechanical structure like hinge, in other words practically all modern mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, laptops, personal digital assistants or alike.
While there have been shown and described and pointed out fundamental features of the invention as applied to the embodiments thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the de- vices and methods described may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention as defined in the attached claims. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps, which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results, be within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of designed choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Claims

Claims
1. A cable connection comprising at least one cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) as a wire conducted signal interconnection between two cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) connected to conductors (301 , 302; 502, 504; 602,
604; 702, 704; 802; 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) at respective ends of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800); wherein at least signal wires (301 , 302; 503; 603; 703; 803) of the conductors (301 , 302; 502, 504; 602, 604; 702, 704; 802, 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) are directly and permanent electrical connected at each end with respective contacts (522, 622, 722; 822) of the respective cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820), wherein the cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable connection.
2. The cable connection according to claim 1 , wherein the cable is comprised of shielded pair cables for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling.
3. The cable connection according to claim 1 , wherein the cable is a coaxial cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800).
4. The cable connection according to claim 1 , wherein the cable comprises a pair of coaxial cables for simultaneous bidirectional differential signaling.
5. The cable connection according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein each of the cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) comprises transceiver units for sending and receiving of a wire-conducted signal via the cable connection.
6. The cable connection according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein each of the cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) is adapted to the cable impedance and cable length by matching of input and output impedances of the cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820), which are connected to conductors (301 , 302; 502, 504; 602, 604; 702, 704; 802; 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800), to the respective cable impedance.
7. The cable connection according to one of the claims 1 to 6, wherein the cable (500; 600; 700; 800) comprises an outer conductor (504; 604; 704; 804), which is connected to a ground potential of the cable module circuit (520; 620; 720; 820) at least at one end of the cable (500; 600; 700; 800).
8. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 7, wherein the cable (450; 500; 600; 700; 800) comprises an outer conductor (504; 604; 704; 804) having a thickness adapted such that electronic discharge pulses are attenuated such that electronic discharge protection circuit can be limited at the cable module circuit (452, 454; 520; 629; 720; 820).
9. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 8 wherein the cable module circuits (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) are integrated circuits.
10. The cable connection according to claim 9, wherein at least one of the contacts at the integrated cable module circuit (720) is a contact pad (741 ) for an interconnection by a bonding wire (742).
11. The cable connection according to one of the claims 9 or 10, wherein at least one of the contacts at the integrated cable module circuit (520; 620) is at least one of a direct bump (522, 524; 622, 624) on of at least one of a contact pad, a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a thick repassivation or redistribution pad.
12. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 11 , wherein the signal wires (301 , 302; 503; 603; 703) of the cable (500; 600; 700) are directly and permanent electrically connected to some of the contacts.
13. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 11 , wherein at least one cable (700) is fixed to a support board (710) and at which at least the signal wire (703) of the cable (700) is directly and permanent connected from the support board (710) to a respective contact of the integrated cable module circuit (720) by means of a bonding wire (742).
14. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 13, wherein the respective cable module circuit (620; 720) is at least at one end of the cable (600; 700) sealed and protected by means of a cover material (630, 730).
15. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 13, wherein the respective cable module circuit (820) is packed at least at one end of the cable (800) into a circuit package (840), which comprises connection means (822, 824) for connection of the cable module circuit (820) to a cir- cuit board (10).
16. The cable connection according to claim 15, wherein the connection means is at least one of a connection pin (822, 824), a connection bump, a connection ball or a combination thereof for a permanent mounting of the molded package to a circuit board.
17. The cable connection according any one of the claims 15 or 16, wherein at least one signal wire is directly and permanent connected to the cable module circuit via a printed wiring board having respective electrical connections to the contacts of the packed integrated cable module circuit (520; 620; 720).
18. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 15 to 17, wherein the integrated cable module circuit (520; 620) is interconnected in a flip chip arrangement.
19. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 15 to 17, wherein the integrated cable module circuit is arranged interconnected to a lead frame with respective lead frame contact pads and at least the signal wire of the conductors of the cable is connected to one of the lead frame contact pads.
20. The cable connection according to claim 15, wherein the connection means are a connector adapted for connecting the packed cable module circuit to a corresponding connector port located at a circuit board.
21. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 15 to 20, wherein the connection means comprise connection pins for data input and output to the cable module circuit and power supply pins for providing electrical power to the cable module circuit.
22. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 21 , wherein the cable connection is used for a simultaneous bidirectional signaling in- terconnection between a mobile electronic device and a periphery device thereof.
23. The cable connection according to claim 22, wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone and the periphery device is a headset with a dis- play.
24. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 23, wherein the cable connection is inside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device, wherein the parts of the housing of the mobile device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device may be moved with respect to each other, and wherein the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
25. The cable connection according to claim 24, wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile computer and the cable connection connects a display of the mobile computer, which display is attached to the mobile device by means of a hinge or sliding mechanics.
26. The cable connection according to claim 24, wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone (400).
27. The cable connection according to claim 26, wherein the connection is an interconnection for Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance M-PHY protocol.
28. The cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 27, wherein each of the cable module circuit comprise multi-gigabit bidirectional trans- ceivers.
29. Use of a cable connection according to any one of the claims 1 to 28 inside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the electronic device, wherein the parts of the housing of the electronic device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the electronic device may be moved with respect to each other, and wherein the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
30. A method of manufacture comprising cutting a cable to a required predetermined length; fabricating integrated cable module circuits, which are arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via the cable; and - connecting directly with a permanent method conductors of the cable at each cable end with respective contacts of the respective integrated cable module circuits; wherein in fabricating of the integrated cable module circuits respective input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuits con- nected to the respective conductors of the cable are matched to the cable impedance.
31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the method further comprises
- packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a package to form a cable connector module at each end of the cable.
32. The method according to claim 30, wherein the method further comprises
- packaging the integrated cable module circuits into a housing having a connector for attaching such formed cable module to a respective port connector at a circuit board.
33. The method according to any one of the claims 30 to 32, wherein the method further comprises
- directly bonding of signal wires of the cable to contact pads of the integrated cable module circuits.
34. The method according to any one of the claims 30 to 32, wherein the method further comprises - providing contacts at the integrated cable module circuits with contact- able bumps or pins ; and
- arranging the integrated cable module circuits in a flip chip arrangement.
35. The method according to claim 34, wherein the method further comprises
- connecting the conductors of the cable at each cable end to the respec- tive contactable bumps or pins in mounting of the integrated cable module circuits to a printed circuit board.
36. The method according to any one of the claims 34 to 35, wherein the method further comprises
- fixing the cable in a through hole of a printed circuit board; and
- connecting at least the signal wires of the conductors of the cable at the other side of the printed circuit board to the respective contactable bumps or pins of the respective integrated cable module circuit in mounting of the integrated cable module circuits to a printed circuit board.
37. The method according to any one of the claims 30 to 32, wherein the method further comprises - arranging the integrated cable module circuits into a lead frame;
- interconnecting contacts of the integrated cable module circuits with lead frame contact pads at the lead frame; and
- connecting at least the signal wires of the conductors of the cable to respective lead frame contact pads.
38. A integrated circuit comprising contacts (522, 622, 722; 822) for interconnection of the integrated circuit, which is a cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection; wherein cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) is adapted to be connected to a cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) for a wire conducted signal interconnection via the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) with another cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) connected to conductors (301 , 302; 502, 504; 602, 604; 702, 704; 802; 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) at the other end of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800); wherein at least signal wires
(301 , 302; 503;603; 703; 803) of the conductors (301 , 302; 502, 504; 602, 604; 702, 704; 802, 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) are to be directly and permanent electrical connected to the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820).
39. The integrated circuit according to claim 38, wherein the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) comprises transceiver units arranged for sending and receiving of a wire-conducted signal via the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800).
40. The integrated circuit according to any one of claims 38 or 39, wherein the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) is adapted to the cable impedance and cable length, predetermined by the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) to be connected to the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820), wherein input and output impedances of the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) are matched to the respective cable impedance.
41. The integrated circuit according to one of the claims 38 to 40, wherein the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820) comprises at least contacts for connection of an outer conductor (504; 604; 704; 804) of the cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800), which contact is a ground potential of the cable module circuit (520; 620; 720; 820).
42. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 41 , wherein electronic discharge protection circuit of the cable module circuit (452, 454; 520; 629; 720; 820) is adapted with respect to attenuation of electronic discharge pulses by a predetermined thickness of an outer conductor (504; 604; 704; 804) of the cable (450; 500; 600; 700; 800) to be connected to the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820).
43. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 42, wherein at least one of the contacts at the integrated cable module circuit (720) is a contact pad (741 ) for an interconnection by a bonding wire (742).
44. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 43, wherein at least one of the contacts at the integrated cable module circuit (520; 620) is at least one of a direct bump (522, 524; 622, 624) on of at least one of a contact pad, a repassivation or redistribution pad, and a thick repassivation or redistribution pad.
45. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 44, wherein the cable module circuit (820) is packed into a circuit package (840), which comprises connection means (822, 824) for connection of the cable module circuit (820) to at least a cable (300; 450; 500; 600; 700; 800) to be connected to the cable module circuit (311 , 321 ; 452, 454; 520; 620; 720; 820).
46. The integrated circuit according to claim 45, wherein the connection means is at least one of a connection pin (822, 824), a connection bump, a connection ball or a combination thereof for a permanent mounting of the molded package to a circuit board.
47. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 46, wherein the integrated cable module circuit (520; 620) is arranged to be interconnected in a flip chip arrangement.
48. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 46, wherein the integrated cable module circuit is arranged to be interconnected to a lead frame with respective lead frame contact pads, one of which is arranged for connection of at least the signal wire of the conductors of a cable to be connected to the cable module circuit.
49. The integrated circuit according to claim 45, wherein the connection means are a connector adapted for connecting the packed cable module circuit to a corresponding connector port located at a circuit board.
50. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 45 to 49, wherein the connection means comprise connection pins for data input and output to the cable module circuit and power supply pins for providing electrical power to the cable module circuit.
51. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 38 to 50, wherein the cable module circuit is used in a cable connection for a simultaneous bidirectional signaling interconnection between a mobile electronic device and a periphery device thereof.
52. The integrated circuit according to claim 51 , wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone and the periphery device is a headset with a display.
53. The integrated circuit according to any one of the claims 51 to 52, wherein the cable connection is inside an electronic device, where electronic circuits of the mobile electronic device are located in respective parts of a housing of the mobile device, wherein the parts of the housing of the mobile device are mechanical connected to each other such that the parts of the housing of the mobile device may be moved with respect to each other, and wherein the cable connection is going through or arranged inside the mechanical connection.
54. The integrated circuit according to claim 51 , wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile computer and the cable connection connects a display of the mobile computer, which display is attached to the mobile device by means of a hinge or sliding mechanics.
55. The integrated circuit according to claim 53, wherein the mobile electronic device is a mobile phone (400).
56. The integrated circuit according to claim 55, wherein the connection is an interconnection for Mobile Industry Processor Interface alliance M-PHY protocol.
57. A method of manufacture comprising fabricating an integrated cable module circuit, which is arranged for simultaneous bidirectional signaling via a cable connection, wherein at least re- spective input and output impedances of the integrated cable module circuit are matched to cable impedance, which is predetermined by a cable to be connected to the integrated cable module circuit.
58. The method according to claim 57, wherein the method further comprises connecting directly with a permanent method conductors of the cable with respective contacts of the respective integrated cable module circuit.
59. The method according to any one of the claims 57 or 58, wherein the method further comprises packaging the integrated cable module circuit into a package to form a cable connector module at each end of the cable.
60. The method according to any one of the claims 57 or 58, wherein the method further comprises packaging the integrated cable module circuit into a housing having a connector adapted for attaching the cable module circuit to a respective port connector at a circuit board.
61. The method according to any one of the claims 57 or 60, wherein the method further comprises directly bonding of signal wires of the cable to contact pads of the integrated cable module circuit.
62. The method according to any one of the claims 57 or 61 , wherein the method further comprises providing contacts at the integrated cable module circuits with contactable bumps or pins; and arranging the integrated cable module circuits in a flip chip arrangement.
63. The method according to claim 62, wherein the method further comprises connecting the conductors of the cable at each cable end to the respective contactable bumps or pins in mounting of the integrated cable module circuit to a printed circuit board.
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