Cisco Technology, Inc.

Kenneth Hubbard

Zhiping Yang

Jie Xue

Yida Zou

Mudasir Ahmad

An area array device has a grid array of primary electrical contacts coupled to a coupling surface of the device and configured to carry data signals between the area array package and a circuit board. The area array device also has an additional series of secondary electrical contacts coupled to the coupling surface of the device and configured to carry power signals between the area array package and the circuit board. The additional series of secondary electrical contacts provides a relatively large amount of power to the area array package while allowing a manufacturer to maintain the number of primary electrical contacts of the grid array configured to carrying data signals and therefore maintain the overall performance of the area array package.

Methods and apparatus for providing a power signal to an area array package

A heat sink has a flexure member attached to a base of the heat sink and located between the base and an associated circuit board component. As the heat sink attaches to a circuit board carrying the circuit board component, the flexure member conforms to the surface of the circuit board component, thereby thermally contacting the circuit board component. The flexure member absorbs local tolerance differences on the circuit board component to provide a relatively uniform stress across the surface of the circuit board component. The flexure member further limits the amount of stress generated by the heat sink on the circuit board component. When used in conjunction with a heat sink spanning several circuit board components, the flexure member absorbs global tolerance differences among the circuit board components, thereby providing relatively uniform stresses to all of the circuit board components and limiting the amount of stress experienced by any one circuit board component.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Kenneth Hubbard