Methods, apparatus and system to support large-scale micro- systems including embedded and distributed power supply, thermal regulation, multi-distributedsensors and electrical signal propagation
First Claim
1. An integrated circuit system interconnect device having an integrated circuit substrate comprising:
- surface contacts for making direct contact with contacts of a plurality of integrated circuit components to interconnect said components to form said system;
wherein said substrate comprises support circuitry serving said components, said support circuitry comprising at least one of;
one or more voltage regulators provided within said substrate for receiving source power and delivering a voltage level to at least one of said surface contacts for delivering power to ones of said contacts of said plurality of integrated circuit components;
an array of heat transfer blocks distributed over and coupled to one surface of said substrate to draw heat from said substrate while allowing said substrate to expand and contract due to temperature variations during operation and storage without compromising mechanical and electrical integrity of said system, wherein another surface of said substrate comprises said surface contacts for interconnecting said plurality of components;
a distributed differential signal pair switch matrix permitting a selected one of said surface contacts to be paired with a selected one of a plurality of other ones of said surface contacts to support differential signaling;
distributed signal measurement circuitry for determining one or more of;
power drawn;
voltage level drops;
current levels drawn; and
signal integrity at at least some of said surface contacts;
one or more clock or reset trees;
analog circuitry for supporting substantially analog functions;
analog-to-digital (ADC) or digital-to-analog (DAC) circuits;
one or more trimmable analog components;
test circuitry to perform testing of circuitry;
at least one controller and circuitry permitting the controller to perform configuring of circuitry through said surface contacts; and
thermal and/or mechanical stress sensors distributed within said substrate.
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Abstract
The present invention relates to technologies for integrated circuits and Large Area Integrated Circuits (LAICs), which are integrated circuits made from photo-repetition of one or several reticle image fields, stitched together on at least one lithographic process layer. It also relates to a specific class of LAIC that can connect to the contacts of other ICs placed on its surface, where specific contact detection algorithms means are disclosed. The innovations include means for defect tolerance of serial communication links, means for efficient diagnosis of short and stuck-at faults in regular reconfigurable network, means for a programmable interposer for rapid prototyping of 3D stacked chips, means to build efficient large area micro-system devices (LAMS), with distributed and configurable hierarchical structures for power supply, thermal regulation and signal propagation, means to reduce mechanical/thermal/thermo-mechanical issues in LAMS devices, means to propagate analog signal on a configurable digital network, means to predict thermo-mechanical stress peaks.
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Citations
58 Claims
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1. An integrated circuit system interconnect device having an integrated circuit substrate comprising:
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surface contacts for making direct contact with contacts of a plurality of integrated circuit components to interconnect said components to form said system; wherein said substrate comprises support circuitry serving said components, said support circuitry comprising at least one of; one or more voltage regulators provided within said substrate for receiving source power and delivering a voltage level to at least one of said surface contacts for delivering power to ones of said contacts of said plurality of integrated circuit components; an array of heat transfer blocks distributed over and coupled to one surface of said substrate to draw heat from said substrate while allowing said substrate to expand and contract due to temperature variations during operation and storage without compromising mechanical and electrical integrity of said system, wherein another surface of said substrate comprises said surface contacts for interconnecting said plurality of components; a distributed differential signal pair switch matrix permitting a selected one of said surface contacts to be paired with a selected one of a plurality of other ones of said surface contacts to support differential signaling; distributed signal measurement circuitry for determining one or more of;
power drawn;
voltage level drops;
current levels drawn; and
signal integrity at at least some of said surface contacts;one or more clock or reset trees; analog circuitry for supporting substantially analog functions; analog-to-digital (ADC) or digital-to-analog (DAC) circuits; one or more trimmable analog components; test circuitry to perform testing of circuitry; at least one controller and circuitry permitting the controller to perform configuring of circuitry through said surface contacts; and thermal and/or mechanical stress sensors distributed within said substrate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44)
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45. An integrated circuit substrate comprising:
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surface contacts for making contacts with a plurality of integrated circuit components; wherein some surface contacts receive and process external data from said surface contacts and drive some other surface contacts with processing results; wherein said substrate comprises support circuitry serving said components, said support circuitry comprising at least one of; one or more voltage regulators provided within said substrate for receiving source power and delivering a voltage level to at least one of said surface contacts for delivering power to ones of said contacts of said plurality of integrated circuit components; a distributed differential signal pair switch matrix permitting a selected one of said surface contacts to be paired with a selected one of a plurality of other ones of said surface contacts to support differential signaling; distributed signal measurement circuitry for determining one or more of; power drawn;
voltage level drops;
current levels drawn; and
signal integrity at at least some of said surface contacts;analog circuitry for supporting substantially analog functions; analog-to-digital (ADC) or digital-to-analog (DAC) circuits; test circuitry to perform testing of circuitry; at least one controller and circuitry permitting the controller to perform configuring of circuitry. - View Dependent Claims (46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58)
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Specification