Conexant Systems, Inc.

Ess Technology, Inc.

Ferry Gunawan

Randall M Chung

Gary D Tindle

Dino D Trotta

A semiconductor imager chip is mated directly to a laminate-type substrate, such as a printed circuit board. A well is formed by placing a retaining wall on the printed circuit board around the imager chip. An optical material such as a clear polymer is injected into the well to cover the imager chip. After the clear polymer cures (hardens) the retaining wall may be removed. The optical material may also have light filtering or other optical properties in addition to transmissivity. The printed circuit board may have one or more layers. Some of such layers may comprise a ground-plane. High speed digital and analog lines may be strategically routed on the one or more layers to minimize interference with adjacent signal lines. Traditional sockets that receive ceramic or plastic chip carrier packages may be used in embodiments to receive the resultant printed circuit board based chip carrier. The circuit board may comprise a typical multi-component PCB or a chip-on-board carrier design.

Chip on board package for imager

A data interface for CMOS imagers is disclosed that can be either a single-ended interface or a differential interface. The single-ended interface provides compatibility with many existing external devices. Further providing a differential interface allows a lower noise and a lower power interface for external devices that can support a differential signal. The combined single-ended and differential signal interface does not increase the number of pins required for a single-ended only interface. The data transfer width is set to the word width, which allows a fixed timing relationship between the clock edge and data transfer in both single-ended and differential modes. In single-ended mode, the data is transferred once per clock, but in the differential mode, the data is transferred twice per clock, once on each clock edge. This fixed timing relationship eliminates the need for and cost of explicit bit synchronization.

Growing community of inventors

Santa Ana, CA, United States of America

Ferry Gunawan