TY - GEN
T1 - A 0.15mm-thick non-contact connector for MIPI using vertical directional coupler
AU - Mizuhara, Wataru
AU - Shidei, Tsunaaki
AU - Kosuge, Atsutake
AU - Takeya, Tsutomu
AU - Miura, Noriyuki
AU - Taguchi, Masao
AU - Ishikuro, Hiroki
AU - Kuroda, Tadahiro
PY - 2013/4/29
Y1 - 2013/4/29
N2 - As silicon chip performance continues to increase, the interconnection capabilities should also be improved to achieve higher overall system performance. This paper proposes a new, small-size and high-speed non-contact interconnect between printed circuit boards (PCBs) using a vertical directional coupler (VDC), which has actually been applied to a liquid crystal display (LCD) driver board. The feasibility of a millimeter-range non-contact interface using a directional coupler was studied previously [1]. In this paper, two signal ports have been implemented in one coupler by best utilizing the characteristics of VDC. The coupler size is 5mm × 2.25mm, and the gap between the couplers is about 75μm, which corresponds to the twofold thickness of a soldering resist on PCB and the adhesive material in between. The transmitter transforms the data sequence from Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) into pulses in order to reduce the level of DC components. This achieves a power saving of 1.47pJ/b, and the pulses are sent to the coupler in differential mode to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI). The measured speed was 4.6Gb/s per coupler to achieve the MIPI's maximum speed of 6Gb/s with two couplers. Conventional connectors have housings to protect contact elements or to provide mechanical support for plug-in and out. However, these housings make it difficult to achieve the smallest possible systems because they require extra space. In addition, they sometimes make the PCB trace longer, which deteriorates the maximum data rate. The method we have developed involves delineating VDC on PCB or a flexible printed circuit (FPC) to connect boards without housings and with the minimum distance. As a result, this interconnect scheme is advantageous not only because it saves space but also because it makes it easier to build systems, even those that contain a large number of built-in connectors. Thus, the proposed non-contact interconnect is suitable for future small-size systems.
AB - As silicon chip performance continues to increase, the interconnection capabilities should also be improved to achieve higher overall system performance. This paper proposes a new, small-size and high-speed non-contact interconnect between printed circuit boards (PCBs) using a vertical directional coupler (VDC), which has actually been applied to a liquid crystal display (LCD) driver board. The feasibility of a millimeter-range non-contact interface using a directional coupler was studied previously [1]. In this paper, two signal ports have been implemented in one coupler by best utilizing the characteristics of VDC. The coupler size is 5mm × 2.25mm, and the gap between the couplers is about 75μm, which corresponds to the twofold thickness of a soldering resist on PCB and the adhesive material in between. The transmitter transforms the data sequence from Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) into pulses in order to reduce the level of DC components. This achieves a power saving of 1.47pJ/b, and the pulses are sent to the coupler in differential mode to prevent electromagnetic interference (EMI). The measured speed was 4.6Gb/s per coupler to achieve the MIPI's maximum speed of 6Gb/s with two couplers. Conventional connectors have housings to protect contact elements or to provide mechanical support for plug-in and out. However, these housings make it difficult to achieve the smallest possible systems because they require extra space. In addition, they sometimes make the PCB trace longer, which deteriorates the maximum data rate. The method we have developed involves delineating VDC on PCB or a flexible printed circuit (FPC) to connect boards without housings and with the minimum distance. As a result, this interconnect scheme is advantageous not only because it saves space but also because it makes it easier to build systems, even those that contain a large number of built-in connectors. Thus, the proposed non-contact interconnect is suitable for future small-size systems.
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U2 - 10.1109/ISSCC.2013.6487699
DO - 10.1109/ISSCC.2013.6487699
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84876578802
SN - 9781467345132
T3 - Digest of Technical Papers - IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference
SP - 200
EP - 201
BT - 2013 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, ISSCC 2013 - Digest of Technical Papers
T2 - 2013 60th IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference, ISSCC 2013
Y2 - 17 February 2013 through 21 February 2013
ER -