Thin module system and method with thermal management
AssigneeStaktek Group L.P.
InventorPaul Goodwin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A flex circuit populated with integrated circuits on one or both sides and in one or more fields along the flex circuitry is wrapped about an edge of a supporting substrate. In preferred embodiments, the substrate is thermally conductive material. One side of the flex circuitry has a connective facility implemented in a preferred embodiment with edge connector contacts such as those that would allow the resulting module to be inserted into an expansion socket. In a preferred embodiment, integrated circuits (preferably memory CSPs) and any accompanying circuitry or buffers are arranged on one or both sides of a flexible circuit. In some embodiments, one or more thermal sensors or other indicators are thermally coupled to the module substrate.
Claims37
A circuit module for reducing thermal variation between constituent CSPs, the module comprising:
- (a) a thermally-conductive rigid substrate having first and second lateral sides, at least one extension and an edge;
- and
- (b) flex circuitry populated with a plurality of CSPs and exhibiting a connective facility that comprises plural contacts for use with an edge connector, the flex circuitry being wrapped about the edge of the thermally-conductive substrate.
A circuit module for reducing thermal variation between constituent CSPs, the module comprising:
- (a) a thermally-conductive rigid substrate having first and second lateral sides, at least one extension and an edge;
- and
- (b) flex circuitry comprising a first flex circuit populated with a plurality of CSPs and having plural contacts for insertion into an edge connector and a second flex circuit populated with a plurality of CSPs.
A circuit module comprising:
- a thermally-conductive rigid substrate having first and second lateral sides and an edge;
- flexible circuitry populated with plural CSPs and at least one sensor, the flexible circuitry being wrapped about the edge of the thermally-conductive rigid substrate.
A circuit module comprising:
- a flex circuit having a first side and a second side, the first side exhibiting a connective facility disposed between first and second pluralities of first side memory CSPs disposed along the first side, the second side exhibiting first and second pluralities of second side memory CSPs disposed along the second side there being at least one pair of memory CSPs composed of two CSPs including a selected one of the CSPs of the first plurality of first side memory CSPs and a selected one of the CSPs of the first plurality of second side memory CSPs positioned opposite each other and separated by the flex circuit so as to encourage migration of thermal energy from the one of the two CSPs that is in an ON state to the one of the two CSPs that is in a quiescent state;
- a thermally conductive substrate having first and second lateral sides and at least one extension opposite an edge of the thermally-conductive substrate, the flex circuit being disposed about the edge of the thermally-conductive substrate to dispose the connective facility more proximal to the edge of the substrate than the at least one extension.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.