The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 11, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 21, 1997
Industrial Technology Research Institiute, Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
A switchable I/O buffer for multi-chip modules comprising a conventional I/O buffer and a miniaturized I/O buffer. A path switch selects the conventional I/O buffer or the minaturized I/O buffer according to whether the I/O interconnection is for communication off the module or chip-to-chip communication within the module. The miniaturized I/O buffer comprises a single-ended I/O buffer without electrostatic discharge protection. Two layout structures are designed for the switchable I/O buffer. A first layout structure having its path switching control provided by either a cell-programmable method or a mask-programmable method can be used for a multi-chip module or a PWB single package. A second layout structure using a pad-programmable method to provide the path switching control is suitable for a multi-chip module with flip-chip attachment technology. Four different circuit implementations of the switchable I/O buffer are presented. The switchable I/O buffer achieves higher performance with lower power dissipation in that the unnecessary heavy loading and electrostatic discharge protection are eliminated from the interconnection for chip-to-chip communication within the multi-chip module.