Integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus

• US 9,066,198 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2013
• Issued: 06/23/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Original Assignee: National Chiao Tung University (Government of The Republic of China)
• Inventors: Chung, Shyh-Jong, Wang, Hsiao-Ning
• Primary Examiner(s): Bilodeau, David
• Application Number:
  US14/093,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20150111492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/22 Capacitive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/24 Inductive coupling
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/72 for local intradevice communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus makes use of the rule of filter design to transfer signal from a chip to the transmission lines of a PCB. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus includes a substrate, a chip disposed on the substrate, a first resonator unit disposed on the chip for receiving a first signal with a first frequency generated from the chip, a PCB positioned at a distance opposite to the substrate, and a second resonator unit disposed on the PCB. The first signal passes through the first resonator unit to generate a contactless coupling between the first and second resonator units, so the second resonator unit generates a second signal. The second signal has a second frequency substantially equal to the first frequency.

Claims

1. An integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus, comprising:

a substrate having a first surface;

a chip disposed on the first surface;

a first resonator unit disposed on the chip for receiving a first signal with a first frequency generated from the chip;

a printed circuit board (PCB) having a second surface opposite to the substrate and disposed to have a gap between the substrate and the PCB, wherein the gap is a distance from the first surface to the second surface; and

a second resonator unit disposed on the second surface,

wherein the first signal with the first frequency passes through the first resonator unit to generate a contactless coupling between the first resonator unit and second resonator unit, so that the first signal is transferred between the first resonator unit and second resonator unit in a manner of electromagnetic coupling transmission.

2. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the distance ranges between zero and 200 μ

m.

3. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the distance ranges between zero and 30 μ

m.

4. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the first resonator unit and the second resonator unit is a distributed element, a semi-distributed element, or a lumped element.

5. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the first resonator unit and the second resonator unit are each the distributed element.

6. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the chip includes a signal feed-in unit connected to the first resonator unit.

7. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the chip further includes a grounding unit held between the first resonator unit and the substrate.

8. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the substrate is a silicon substrate.

9. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the substrate is a GaAs substrate.

10. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first signal has a first wavelength, the first resonator unit has a first resonant path, and the first resonant path has a length of about ¼

, ½

, or integer multiple of the first wavelength.

11. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second resonator unit generates a second signal with a second wavelength, the first resonator unit has a second resonant path, and the second resonant path has a length of about ¼

, ½

, or integer multiple of the second wavelength.

12. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second resonator unit has a U shape.

13. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the contactless coupling is a near-field coupling, and the near-field coupling is an inductive coupling, a capacitive coupling, or a mixed coupling.

14. The integrated contactless signal transfer apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second resonator unit comprises a plurality of resonators.