Apple patent involves a semiconductor die package
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Nov 4, 2008 at 1:05pm
An Apple patent (number 7447389) for a semiconductor die package with internal bypass capacitors has appeared at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The invention relates to techniques for reducing voltage noise in electrical circuits. More specifically, the present invention relates to a package for a semiconductor die which contains bypass capacitors that operate to reduce voltage noise on an integrated (IC) circuit device, such as a microprocessor chip.
According to Apple, one embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus that reduces voltage noise for an integrated circuit (IC) device. This apparatus includes a package which is configured to be sandwiched between the IC device and a circuit board. This package has a bottom surface, which is configured to receive electrical connections for power, ground and other signals from the circuit board, and a top surface, which is configured to provide electrical connections for power, ground and the other signals to the IC device. A plurality of bypass capacitors are integrated into the package and are coupled between the power and ground connections for the IC device, so that the plurality of bypass capacitors reduce voltage noise between the power and ground connections for the IC device.
The inventor is William P. Cornelius. The graphic below illustrates how a microprocessor die and bypass capacitors are integrated into a conventional microprocessor system.
Leave a comment ⇒
Please post the article topic & comment in our forums. No registration required.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
