Presented is the complete demonstration of an assembled system using AC coupled interconnect (ACCI) and buried solder bumps. In this system, noncontacting input/output (I/O) are created by using half-capacitor plates on both a chip and a substrate, while buried solder bumps are used to provide power/ground distribution and physical alignment of the coupling plates. ACCI using buried bumps is a technology that provides a manufacturable solution for noncontacting I/O signaling by integrating high-density, low inductance power/ground distribution with high-density, high-speed I/O. The demonstration system shows two channels operating simultaneously at 2.5 Gb/s/channel with a bit error rate less than 10-12, across 5.6 cm of transmission line on a multichip module (MCM). Simple transceiver circuits were designed and fabricated in a 0.35 -mum complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology, and for PRBS-127 data at 2.5 Gb/s transmit and receive circuits consumed 10.3 mW and 15.0 mW, respectively. This work illustrates the increasing importance of chip and package co-design for high-performance systems.
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