High-speed router with backplane using muli-diameter drilled thru-holes and vias
First Claim
1. A circuit board comprising:
- a plurality of conductive layers separated by insulating layers, at least some of the conductive layers patterned to contain traces; and
a first hole through the circuit board and having a conductive liner in a first longitudinal segment of the hole, the conductive liner electrically connected to a first one of the traces on at least a first one of the conductive layers, the hole having a second longitudinal segment with no conductive liner, adjacent to a first end of the hole, the second longitudinal segment of the hole comprising at least one transition from a first profile adjacent the first end of the hole to a second profile longitudinally separated from the first end of the hole.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A high-speed router backplane is disclosed. The router backplane uses differential signal pairs on multiple signal layers, each sandwiched between a pair of digital ground layers. Thru-holes are used to connect the differential signal pairs to external components. To reduce routing complexity, at least some of the differential signal pairs route through a via pair, somewhere along their path, to a different signal layer. At least some of the thru-holes and vias are drilled to reduce an electrically conductive stub length portion of the hole. The drilled portion of a hole includes a transition from a first profile to a second profile to reduce radio frequency reflections from the end of the drilled hole.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A circuit board comprising:
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a plurality of conductive layers separated by insulating layers, at least some of the conductive layers patterned to contain traces; and a first hole through the circuit board and having a conductive liner in a first longitudinal segment of the hole, the conductive liner electrically connected to a first one of the traces on at least a first one of the conductive layers, the hole having a second longitudinal segment with no conductive liner, adjacent to a first end of the hole, the second longitudinal segment of the hole comprising at least one transition from a first profile adjacent the first end of the hole to a second profile longitudinally separated from the first end of the hole. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A circuit board comprising:
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a plurality of conductive trace layers and a plurality of conductive ground plane layers separated by insulating layers, the conductive layers arranged such that the conductive trace layers are each positioned between a pair of ground plane layers, the conductive trace layers each comprising a plurality of differential signaling trace pairs; and a plurality of hole pairs positioned at the termination points of the differential trace pairs, at least a first subset of the holes having a partial conductive liner electrically contacting the differential trace pair termination point associated with those holes, the holes in the first subset each comprising an end section with no conductive liner, the end section comprising at least one transition from a first profile to a second profile, wherein the hole pairs included in the first subset consist of hole pairs that are substantially identical to each other. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A method of fabricating a circuit board comprising a plurality of differential signaling trace pairs formed on conductive trace layers within the circuit board, the method comprising:
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assembling a plurality of conductive trace layers comprising differential signaling trace pairs and insulating layers into a panel, each differential signaling trace comprising terminating pads; forming a hole through the circuit board at the location of each differential signaling trace terminating pad so as to pass through the terminating pad; plating the holes to form a conductive liner in each hole connected to the trace terminating pad; for at least some of the plated holes, removing the conductive liner from a longitudinal segment adjacent at least one end of the plated hole such that the longitudinal segment comprises at least one transition from a first profile adjacent the end of the hole to a second profile longitudinally separated from the end of the hole. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
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Specification