Signal sending and receiving system of semiconductor integrated circuit

Abstract

Abstract PURPOSE:To reduce the number of electric connections to the minimum and to prevent the degradation of reliability such as breaking of wires and the like by carrying out the communication between an IC and its outside by light. CONSTITUTION:In order to output the signal from the IC 1 to the outside, an optical fiber 8 is provided in the vicinity of a LED 7 embedded in the IC 1, and the light signal is conducted to a light receiving element 9, where the light is converted to electricity. The light signal from a light emitting element 10 is conducted in the optical fiber 8 to a light receiving element 11, where the light is converted into electricity. The elements 9 and 10 can be either a single-unit element or an embedded element. In this constitution, the number of connecting points is decreased, the number of signal lines is decreased, and the reliability is enhanced.

Inventors

• 👤 Shunichi Yoshida

Bibliographic Details