March 1998
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Thomas & Betts Announces New Interconnect Technology
Memphis, TN-Thomas & Betts has announced a new material technology with the potential to double or triple the upper I/O limits of high density ICs.Known as metallized particle interconnect (MPI) technology, the material is said to provide a reliable interconnect method for high density board components without using metal pins or solder. The material was developed by Thomas & Betts in conjunction with several major customers.
MPI is particularly suited to designing high-density interconnections employed to attach high I/O microprocessors and ASICs to PC boards, the company said.
The MPI material is formed into tiny "micro-columns" 0.025" in diameter and 1 mm high, which align with the I/O contacts of the packaged device and the landing pad contacts of the PC board. When mechanically compressed by a frame holding the IC, the metallized particles inside the compressed columns join to form a conductive path between the contacts.
The conductive path features electrical properties which are similar to a metal pin or solder ball contact with inductance values measured at 0.2 nH. A heat sink can be incorporated into the IC's frame to provide additional compression and to dissipate excess heat.
"One of the challenges for computer system designers has been to provide an interconnection path for these densely integrated silicon devices onto the motherboard. In fact, one of the barriers to
integrating even more functions into a single chip has been the I/O limitations of conventional interconnect technology," said Roy Burton, president of the Thomas & Betts Electronics Group.
"With a higher density interconnection technology, such as MPI, system designers will be able to integrate the functions of several chips into a single
piece of silicon, reducing the number of components, interconnections and overall size of their PC boards," he added.
According to Burton, the cost of MPI interconnects will be lower than that of conventional sockets-less than five cents per contact.
Thomas & Betts Corp., 1555 Lynnfield Rd., Memphis, TN 38119, 800.888.0211
The metallized particle Interconnect (MPI) technology developed by Thomas & Betts is designed to pro. vice an electrically and mechanically reliable, low cost interconnection method without the use of metal pins or solder techniques.