Proximity communication
Encyclopedia
Proximity communication is a Sun microsystems
technology of wireless chip
-to-chip communications. Partly by Robert Drost
and Ivan Sutherland
. Research done as part of High Productivity Computing Systems
DARPA project.
Proximity communication replaces wires by capacitive coupling, promises significant increase in communications speed between chips in an electronic system, among other benefits. Partially funded by a $50 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Comparing traditional area ball bonding, proximity communication has one order smaller scale, so it can be two order densier (in terms of connection number/PIN) than ball bonding.
This technique require very good alignment between chips and very small gaps between tx and rx parts (2-3 micrometers), which can be destroyed by thermal expansion, vibration, dust, etc.
Chip transmitter consists (according to presentation slide) of big 32x32 array of very small Tx micropads, 4x4 array of bigger Rx micropads (four times bigger than tx micropad), and two linear arrays of 14 X vernier and 14 Y vernier.
Proximity communication can be used with 3D packing on chips in Multi-Chip Module
, allowing to connect several MCM without sockets and wires.
Speed was up to 1.35 Gbit/s/channel in tests of 16 channel systems. BER < 10−12. Static power is 3.6 mW/channel, dynamic power is 3.9 pJ/bit
Current status of the project is unknown.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
technology of wireless chip
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
-to-chip communications. Partly by Robert Drost
Robert Drost
Robert Drost is an American computer scientist. He was born in 1970 in New York City.- Sun Microsystems:Drost joined Sun Microsystems in 1993 after obtaining a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 2001 he earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science...
and Ivan Sutherland
Ivan Sutherland
Ivan Edward Sutherland is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer. He received the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1988 for the invention of Sketchpad, an early predecessor to the sort of graphical user interface that has become ubiquitous in personal...
. Research done as part of High Productivity Computing Systems
High Productivity Computing Systems
High Productivity Computing Systems is a DARPA project for developing a new generation of economically viable high productivity computing systems for national security and industry in the 2002-2010 timeframe....
DARPA project.
Proximity communication replaces wires by capacitive coupling, promises significant increase in communications speed between chips in an electronic system, among other benefits. Partially funded by a $50 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Comparing traditional area ball bonding, proximity communication has one order smaller scale, so it can be two order densier (in terms of connection number/PIN) than ball bonding.
This technique require very good alignment between chips and very small gaps between tx and rx parts (2-3 micrometers), which can be destroyed by thermal expansion, vibration, dust, etc.
Chip transmitter consists (according to presentation slide) of big 32x32 array of very small Tx micropads, 4x4 array of bigger Rx micropads (four times bigger than tx micropad), and two linear arrays of 14 X vernier and 14 Y vernier.
Proximity communication can be used with 3D packing on chips in Multi-Chip Module
Multi-Chip Module
A multi-chip module is a specialized electronic package where multiple integrated circuits , semiconductor dies or other discrete components are packaged onto a unifying substrate, facilitating their use as a single component...
, allowing to connect several MCM without sockets and wires.
Speed was up to 1.35 Gbit/s/channel in tests of 16 channel systems. BER < 10−12. Static power is 3.6 mW/channel, dynamic power is 3.9 pJ/bit
Current status of the project is unknown.