Application of capacitive coupling to switch fabrics

Abstract

In this paper, we look beyond conductive coupling to the fundamental opportunity for passing signals between chips by non-conductive means. Capacitively coupled interconnects afford a number of advantages over conventional, conductive junctions in flipped chip MCM designs. The main focus of this paper is to describe a conceptual design for a switch fabric that employs the unique advantages of capacitively coupled multichip modules. A secondary focus is to describe current experiments-in-progress intended to demonstrate the utility and advantages of capacitive coupling.