{
    "matter": "US11302645",
    "document_type": "Patent terminology definitions",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "term": "ground plane",
            "definition": "“Ground plane” refers to an electrically conductive surface or plane, usually connected to electrical ground. In printed circuit boards, a ground plane is a large area of copper foil of a printed circuit board which is connected to the power supply ground terminal and serves as a return path for current from different components on the printed circuit board.\r\nIn multilayer PCBs, a ground plane may be a separate layer covering the entire board. This serves to make circuit layout easier, allowing the designer to ground any component without having to run additional traces; component leads needing grounding are routed directly through a hole in the printed circuit board to the ground plane on another layer. The large area of copper also conducts the large return currents from many components without significant voltage drops, ensuring that the ground connection of all the components are at the same reference potential. (Search “ground plane” on Wikipedia.com Mar. 31, 2020. Modified. Accessed Jun. 4, 2020.)"
        },
        {
            "term": "ground source",
            "definition": "“Ground source” refers to a structure or connection or component that serves as ground or serves to ground an electrical signal."
        },
        {
            "term": "Ground via",
            "definition": "“Ground via” refers to a via configured to electrically connect a ground source (also referred to simply as ‘ground’) or a structure conducting an electrical signal to a ground source."
        },
        {
            "term": "Insulation layer",
            "definition": "“Insulation layer” refers to a planar layer of material configured to provide electrical insulation between electrical components on either side of the insulation layer. In one embodiment, the insulation layer is made of a dielectric material, such as a plastic, epoxy, silicon, fiberglass, or the like. In certain embodiments, substrate layers serve to provide electrical insulation. Consequently, an insulation layer may be used interchangeably herein with a substrate or substrate layer."
        },
        {
            "term": "layer",
            "definition": "“Layer” refers to a planar set of material in a multilayer structure, such as a multilayer printed circuit board."
        },
        {
            "term": "pin (electrical)",
            "definition": "\"Pin\" refers to a conductive structure for connecting electrical components of a semiconductor component and/or chip to a bonding pad. A pin may have a variety of shapes and configurations including flat, planar, cylindrical, semi-spherical, and/or spherical. A pin may comprise a thin cylindrical structure often made of metal. In other embodiments, a pin may be implemented as a spherical or semi-spherical structure also referred to as a ball."
        },
        {
            "term": "signal source",
            "definition": "“Signal source” refers to a circuit, sub-circuit, electronic component, hardware, software, firmware, module, logic, device, or apparatus configured, programmed, designed, arranged, or engineered to supply a voltage, current, or electromagnetic wave that varies over time, either in analog or digital wave form, to another structure, circuit, sub-circuit, electronic component, logic, device, or apparatus."
        },
        {
            "term": "Source via",
            "definition": "“Source via” refers to a via configured to electrically connect a signal source or a structure conducting a signal source to a signal trace."
        },
        {
            "term": "Substrate",
            "definition": "“Substrate” refers to a material which provides a surface on which something is deposited or inscribed, for example a silicon wafer used to manufacture integrated circuits and or semiconductors. (Search “substrate” on lexico.com © 2020 Lexico.com. Edited. Accessed Apr. 3, 2020.) A substrate may be a rigid or flexible structure and may be planar in shape. A substrate may also be used in a printed circuit board (PCB). Typically, a substrate is non-conductive or semi-conductive and may be formed from a variety of materials including silicon, plastic, resin, fiberglass, silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, sapphire, germanium, gallium arsenide (GaAs), an alloy of silicon and germanium, indium phosphide (InP), or the like.\r\nIn certain embodiments, a substrate may comprise a silicon wafer and in other embodiments, a substrate may comprise another layer of an integrated semiconductor, including, but not limited to, a top surface of a cell film stack, or the like."
        },
        {
            "term": "t-branch",
            "definition": "“T-branch” refers to a structure within a multilayer printed circuit board, the T-branch connects to one or more signal traces to form a T shaped structure and is configured to route a signal up to a die stack mounted on top of the multilayer printed circuit board and to route a signal down to a die stack mounted on bottom of the multilayer printed circuit board."
        },
        {
            "term": "transmission path",
            "definition": "“Transmission path” refers to an electrical signal that an electronic signal travels through a circuit or a portion of a circuit. A transmission path may include a variety of electrical components and may include one or more connections to a ground source, a signal source, and/or a power source. In certain embodiments, a transmission path may include a transmitter, a receiver, and one or more transmission lines. A transmission path may also be referred to as a ‘main line.’"
        },
        {
            "term": "via",
            "definition": "“Via” refers to a conductive structure configured to electrically connect a conductor on one level of a multilayer metal stack to another conductor on another level of the multilayer metal stack. Vias may be made of a variety of conductive materials. Often vias are made from tungsten and may be referred to as ‘plugs’ or ‘contact plugs.’"
        },
        {
            "term": "“Multilayer printed circuit board”",
            "definition": "“Multilayer printed circuit board” refers to a printed circuit board or “PCB” comprising a plurality of layers of conductive and non-conductive materials. The layers of the multilayer printed circuit board may be configured to provide one or more of mechanical structural support and/or electrically conductive structures such as signal traces. Non-conductive layers of the multilayer printed circuit board may comprise insulation layers. Conductive layers of the multilayer printed circuit board may comprise a patterned metal such as copper, aluminum, or the like. Patterned structures of a conductive layer may be coated and/or encased a non-conductive layer formed on top of the conductive layer.\r\nIn certain embodiments, a lower most layer of the multilayer printed circuit board may comprise a substrate. The number and type of layers of a multilayer printed circuit board may vary depending on the use case. In certain embodiments, the multilayer printed circuit board comprises 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 18 layers. In one embodiment, a multilayer printed circuit board comprises a lower ground plane layer positioned adjacent to the substrate and an upper ground plane layer positioned above one more intermediate layers that are adjacent to the lower ground plane layer."
        },
        {
            "term": "“Printed circuit board” or “PCB”",
            "definition": "“Printed circuit board” or “PCB” refers to a structure that mechanically supports and electrically connects electrical or electronic components using conductive tracks, traces, pads, and other features etched from one or more sheet layers of copper laminated onto and/or between sheet layers of a non-conductive substrate. Components may be soldered onto the PCB to both electrically connect and mechanically fasten them to it. \r\nPCBs can be single-sided (one copper layer), double-sided (two copper layers on both sides of one substrate layer), or multi-layer (outer and inner layers of copper, alternating with layers of substrate). Multi-layer PCBs allow for higher component density, because circuit traces on the inner layers free up surface space between components. Multilayer PCBs may include two, three, four, or more copper planes (layers for traces). (Search “printed circuit board” on Wikipedia.com May 22, 2020. Modified. Accessed Jun. 4, 2020.)"
        },
        {
            "term": "“Transmission line” or “Electrical transmission line”",
            "definition": "“Transmission line” or “Electrical transmission line” refers to a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct alternating current, or oscillating signal or voltage at a radio frequency (about 20 kHz-300 GHz), or higher. The frequency of the signal is high enough that a wave nature of the signal is taken into account. Transmission lines are used for purposes such as connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their antennas (they are then called feed lines or feeders), distributing cable television signals, trunk lines routing calls between telephone switching centers, computer network connections and high speed computer data buses. (Search “transmission line” and “radio frequency” on Wikipedia.com May 28, 2020. Modified. Accessed Jun. 4, 2020.)"
        }
    ]
}