RFCONNEXT is a technology company that develops advanced transmission line interconnect technologies to improve signal and power integrity at high speeds. Their patented PMTL, VMTL, and SMTL transmission line technologies can significantly improve bandwidth and reduce noise compared to traditional lines. RFCONNEXT aims to provide interconnect products and engineering services to squeeze more performance out of copper and advance the high-speed interconnect ecosystem. Measurement results show their prototype transmission lines outperform traditional lines with lower insertion loss and better signal quality at high frequencies.
RFCONNEXT\’s HIGH SPEED INTERCONNECT TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS
1. RFCONNEXT, Inc.
A Technology Overview
Advancing the High Speed Interconnect Ecosystem…™
Jamal S. Izadian, Ph.D.
jsi@rfconnext.com
408-981-3700
March 1, 2010
www.rfconnext.com
2. Mission
• Squeeze More Performance Out of Copper
Interconnects
• Diminish the Cost of Copper Bandwidth
• Advance the High Speed Interconnect
Ecosystem™…
Improve Signal and Power Integrity with
Higher Speed Connectivity, Across the
Spectrum
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3. Business Model
• Innovate, Validate, Critical Elements of
– High Speed Interconnect Ecosystem
• Provide
– Interconnect products with Improved
Bandwidth
– Engineering Support, Services and Solutions
– Embedded IP Development Kits/Licensing
• Make it Greener
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4. Evolution of Advanced
Transmission Lines
Microstrip Stripline
PMTL™/VMTL™/SMTL™
Transmission lines currently used in Advanced Transmission
CMOS, Packaging, and PCB industry Lines
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5. 3D High Speed Interconnect
Solutions
• Disruptive Patent Pending technologies
– PMTL™ , Periodic Micro Transmission Lines
– VMTL™ , Via Micro Transmission Lines
– SMTL™ , Shaped Membrane Transmission Lines
• Enabling the High Speed Interconnect Ecosystem
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6. What are PMTL™, VMTL™, and
SMTL™?
• A family of fundamental printable coaxial-like
transmission lines technologies that
– Significantly improve
• Speed, Bandwidth, Edge Rate
– Significantly Reduces
• EMI, Crosstalk, Noise, Delay, Dispersion
– Provides Excellent
• SE and Diff Impedance
– Supports existing Materials and Fab. Processes
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7. PMTL™ - Periodic Micro
Transmission Lines™
• Connects any points on the same layers with
full bandwidth
• Uses existing design, layout, and fabrication
methods
• Provides at least 30% improved electrical
performance, on FR4, more on Premium
Materials
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8. VMTL™ - Vertical Micro
Transmission Lines™
• Connects any two or multiple stacked layers
with full bandwidth
• Replaces problematic via stacks to connect
vertical Layers
– At high speed
– No parasitic
• Is compatible with PMTL™ and MS,SL,CPW
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9. SMTL™ - Shaped Membrane
Transmission Lines™
• Stackable membrane interconnects
– Embedded Transmission Lines
• Full bandwidth PMTL/VMT
• Traditional MS, SL, CPW etc…
• Full 3D Interconnect, Over The Top
– Replaces Wire bonds in packaging
– Allows die stacking
– Allows Package Stacking
– Allows PCB stacking
• Provides “More than Moore”….Gate/Function Density
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10. 3D Interconnect Attributes
• Wide band TEM DC-220GHz and beyond, no dispersion
• Can be Printed on, Rigid, Flex, PCB, even on Wafer
• Flexes, twists, turns, bends, maintains excellent phase,
amplitude, delay, skew, and impedance
• Lower Power Loss, Lowest Cross Talk, Low ISI
• Provide Thermal management and Power Integrity
• It is stackable, array able, in 2D and 3D
• Material/Process Independent
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11. Advanced Interconnects
Embedded in Products/Markets
• Cables and Connectors
• PCB’s Backplanes Motherboard and
Daughterboard
• Electronic Packaging, Wafer Level
Interconnects
• Test and Measurement /Instrumentation
• Mobile Handsets, Wireless,
Microwave/RF/MMW
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12. Cables and Connectors
• Coaxial Cabling and Flex
– High Performance, Assemblies
– Generic Cabling, Cable Bundles
• Connectors
– Coaxial, Single, and Ganges, SMA, SSMB, K, V
– PCB Connectors, Sockets, Interfaces, PCIe,
• High Speed Twisted Pairs Cabling
– HDMI, Ethernet/Cat 5,6,7
– USB/DVI/FireWire etc…
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14. Packaging ,Wafer and Chip Level
• SMTL, mm Wave Packaging
– PMTL/VMTL coaxial –like interconnect
– Replace Wire Bonding
• Chip Level Packaging (CLP) Wafer Level
Packaging(WLP)
– SxS (Side by Side) flip chips
– Die Stacking ,uSD, SD, USB, DDR
– SiP (System in Package), PoP, Pup, MCM
– PCB Stacks, OTT High Speed Lanes
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15. Test and Measurements (TAM)
• ATE Interfaces
– ATE internal Fan-out
– Spatial Transformers
– Load Boards/Load Cards
– Standardization of Device Interface
• Universal Test Sockets
– BGA, LGA, QFN, TOP etc…
• Personal Desktop Probe Stations
– Probes/Fixtures/Handy probes/ RF Clips
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16. RF/Microwaves mm Waves
• Mobile Handset Boards/Packages
Miniaturization
• Antennas and Antenna Interconnects
• Wide band low loss Optical Power
Combiners
• Low Loss Beam Forming Networks(BFN)
• Low Cost Transmitter - receivers Modules
Integration on FR4
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17. Some High Speed Digital
Applications
• Wide Band Lanes (XAUI, DVI, USB, SGBe,
FC, 10GBase-T, SATA, InfiniBand, PCIe, …)
• SerDes’(ization) Printed active Cabling,
– With embedded Active, Chips, Serdes, E-Passives
• Higher Speed Routers/ Servers/PC’s but less
crowded routing, shrinking in size
• Could Replace Some Fiber links with Copper
on PCB’s
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18. TECHNOLOGY VALIDATION
Measured Performance of PMTL™ on Flex
compared to Similar Coaxial transmission lines
Following Insertion Loss Measurements Courtesy Of Samtec, Inc. Signal Integrity Group
Following Measured TDR and Eye Diagrams Courtesy Of Spectrum Integrity, Inc.
19. Prototypes
The following results were taken from the first prototypes developed.
These prototypes were handled extensively and as such these results
lessons learned will improve the future prototypes.
Material: Pyralux- Connectors: Samtec – Length 6”
Designed for 20GHz
Material: Pyralux - Connectors: Southwest Microwave – Length
6”
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20. Measured Insertion Loss of PMTL™ uFlex vs. Other
Transmission Lines over DC-50GHz(All for 6” length)
Insertion Loss Comparison
0
-2
uCoax_Teflon_Calculated
-4
-6
Insertion Loss (dB)
Equivalent
-8 microstrip Line
-10
RF Flex
PMTL 082008
-12 0.141" Reshapable Coax
0.020" Semi-rigid Coax
-14 1AL PMTL 031508
1BL PMTL 031108
2AL PMTL 031508
PMTL can Beat
-16 3AL PMTL 031508 equivalent Coaxial Line
IIIL PMTL 031508
uCoax_Teflon_Calc uCoax_Kapton_Calculated
-18
uCoax_Kapton_Calc
-20
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Frequency (GHz)
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21. Pyralux, 3 Layer Results
Results from Pyralux material and connectors designed for 20 GHz testing
10 GHz 28GHz 32GHz 40GHz
Time in P2P Rise/Fall P2P Rise/Fall P2P Rise/Fall P2P Rise/Fall
ps Jitte Time Jitte Time Jitter Time Jitter Time
r r
Control 2.2 9.3 / 8.4 2 8.8 / 7.7 3 8.7 / 6.7 4.8 9.7 / 8.0
Flex 4.4 20.4 / 5.1 16.6 / 8.3 17.5 / 16.0 20.4 / 19.7
18.2 15.3 15.5
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22. Pyralux 4 Layer Results
Results from Pyralux sample
10 GHz 28GHz 32GHz
Time P2P Rise/Fall P2P Rise/Fall P2P Rise/Fall
in ps Jitte Time Jitte Time Jitter Time
r r
Contro 2.2 9.3 / 8.4 2.0 8.8 / 7.7 3.0 8.7 / 6.7
l
Flex 4.8 26.6 / 23.5 6.6 29.1 / 25.3 4.4 20.4 / 18.2
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23. TDR, Impedance Profile
6”, 3 Layer PMTL,
designed for 20GHz,
Kapton, SMA
Connectors, Sample S1
6”, 4 Layer PMTL,
designed for
50GHz, Kapton,
2.92mm Conn.,
Samples 1A and
3A
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24. Way Forward
• Insert RFC technologies to improve
performance/cost ratio
• Provide Products and Engineering Services
– Test/ Measurement /Evaluation….
– SMTL™ enabled mmWave High Speed
Packaging
– mmWave Interface with Optical Component
• Provide new wideband cabling/connectors
• Flat connectors to replace SMA, SSMP, K, and V
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25. Additional Information Links
• Watch The Stability and No Dispersion of PMTL™ uFlex Under Live TDR
• Comparing Fields inside a typical Package with Gold Wire Bonds vs. SMTL™,
Shaped Membrane Transmission Lines
• Comparing The Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Signal Integrity and EMI Shielding
Using Traditional Flex and the New PMTL™ uFlex
• Advancing Test and Measurement Instrumentation using PMTL™, VMTL™,
and SMTL™ Technologies ATE, Test Sockets, Load Boards, Device
Interface
• RFCONNEXT TEST and Measurement Catalogue 2009 and 2010
• Application of PMTL™/VMTL™ for Improving DDR Signal Integrity, Skew
and Jitter
• Eric Bogatin, of BeTheSignal.com Interviews Jamal Izadian at
DesignCon2010 about PMTL™
• Download More Info at http://www.rfconnext.com/WHITE%20PAPERS.html
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Contains Patents Pending Materials